AN MP has given an insight into how the role of Westminster politicians has changed since coronavirus lockdown rules were introduced, with Parliament being shut, constituency engagements being cancelled and lobbyists’ approaches tailing off.

Darlington MP Peter Gibson said while the response of community and voluntary groups to the pandemic across the borough had been “phenomenal”, to keep up with an avalanche of requests for help and advice from constituents his office staff had been working around the clock and he had been at his desk seven days a week, for up to 14 hours a day.

Among his priorities has been working to help find a way home for many constituents, ranging from gap year students trekking in South America to people attending weddings in Australia, who have found themselves stranded abroad.

He said: “We have had some successes, getting people back from places like Brazil, Peru and New Zealand, but it’s a constant battle. We’re still working to get people home from places like India, Australia and Florida.

“We are not generally talking about people who have gone for seven days in Alicante or Tenerife. These people are frightened about what they are seeing on the streets there and the fact, in some cases, that they are running out of medication.”

Another reason the former solicitor has seen emails to him doubling over the past three weeks has been constituents’ concerns over their jobs.

He said: “These are typically major employers that constituents and so we would expect them to follow the rules and in the main they would seem to be doing so, but I am not in a position to be able to inspect those workplaces. Every single one of the firms has been very open and welcomed the call to them.”

However, he added that some employers in the borough had had laid off staff unnecessarily, not understanding that under the government’s emergency measures they could furlough most people on PAYE tax.

He said: “I am saddened to see employers not taking up that opportunity.”

Speaking after joining an online meeting of the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee and a series of conference calls with the borough council, police and NHS, Mr Gibson said Parliament was also working “in a very different way”.

He said he was spending many hours on Whatsapp to relay information about the impact of coronavirus on the constituency to MPs and government departments. The MP said he had not ventured out, apart from a trip to the nearby postbox and to walk labradors Peppy and Ebony and Jack Russell Clemmie.

He said: “There doesn’t seem to be a finish time, but what has really shocked me is that some people didn’t think their elected representative would help because they didn’t vote for me. How they voted is irrelevant. I am doing the job I have spent a significant amount of my adult life working towards.”