LAST week, Darlington elected a new MP. I wish Lola the very best for her term in office. It is a privilege to occupy the role, and it is one that should be given its all by its office holder. I certainly gave it my all.

I thank everyone, my staff, my team of supporters and the entire community of Darlington for the journey of my life over the past four-and-half-years.

Last week, almost 10 per cent fewer people voted in Darlington than in 2019, Labour secured their lowest number of votes in Darlington since 1931, and the new MP has the lowest majority of any MP here since 1979.

Did the previous MP not put the effort in? Did he not hold regular surgeries? Support local businesses? Reach out to every section of the community? Was he absent? Uncommunicative? Was he invisible? Did he not deliver on his promises? Was there nothing to see from his term in office?

Of course, none of the answers to those questions is "no". Those who have followed my term in office know that I threw my heart and soul into the job, and I have been literally overwhelmed with the messages and cards and letters following last week’s result.

This was not about me. Indeed voters on doorsteps who had previously voted for me told me it’s not you – a little like that line from a break up, “it’s not you, it’s me”. The “me” in this instance was that people were fed up. Fed up with Brexit, fed up with Westminster, fed up with Boris, with Liz and even Rishi, who has only done his absolute best to turn things around.

I sympathised, indeed I empathised.

You don’t spend four-and-a-half years taking your constituents views faithfully back to Westminster and sharing them with your Whip, with colleagues, with ministers without knowing how fed up they are that what they are telling you isn’t being translated into the things they want to see.

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We made stopping the boats a mantra. When Darlington ladies in their eighties start telling you that they are worried about immigration you know an issue is hitting home. We failed to deliver, and no amount of explaining the legislation around making the route illegal and the complexities of international treaties while more people arrive – you have failed to deliver.

Add to that Partygate, infighting, multiple changes of leadership and, to top the lot, the betting scandals of the election campaign, it was always going to be an uphill struggle.

I had hoped, my hard work might just be enough to ensure I got back over the line, but Darlington has always swung both ways. Even up to the very last few bundles of votes that were counted at the Dolphin Centre, neither my team or indeed the Labour Party knew who had taken the seat.

It’s the other team's turn now, and time will only tell if they will stop the boats, close the food banks, give us more dentistry services, solve the Special Educational Needs and Disability challenges in our community, provide more GP appointments, cut the waiting lists, fix the illegal trade in vapes and counterfeit cigarettes, and generally make us all healthier, wealthier and wiser.

As I said on the night and at the start of this column, I wish our new MP well. She has a tough job, and I say that because I know how tough it is.

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