Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, which comes at a good time to take stock of my first year serving my constituents in this place. I am extremely grateful to the old hands for their sage advice; however, there is one piece of advice I was given that I am happy to call out as the worst I have ever taken. “Don’t rush into recruiting staff,” they said. “Take some time to work out what you need.” By last autumn, I was buried under so many emails that I thought I would never have time to sit in this Chamber ever again. I therefore appeal to colleagues never to give that advice to new MPs ever again. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”]

Once my excellent staff were in place, they worked double hard to keep on top of the new inquiries and to clear the backlog, and I thank them. However, I should politely advise the man who regularly sends me an email that consists of little more than a Daily Express headline and a link, “I am sorry, but we are unlikely to respond to all your emails.”

My constituency is an unusual one. It is one of the largest seats in the country, and it takes in the Solway coast, parts of the Lake District national park, two national landscapes, and villages on the outskirts of Carlisle, Penrith—one of the largest towns at about 15,000—and seven or eight smaller towns, all very Cumbrian, each very different and all pointing to different service centres. If I am honest, it is hard work making sure I visit all my towns and villages. My surgeries and visits take me all over the constituency, but at times it can feel like I am spreading myself very thin. I am sorry if some constituents feel like they do not see enough of me, but I assure them that I am at home in the constituency every week and I am grateful to those living there who reach out and invite me to their events. Meeting Cumbria Young Farmers and attending Maryport carnival have been two of the highlights of my year.

These are strange times politically. One would think that after securing such a huge majority at the last election, MPs like me would be feeling quite upbeat. I am not. Although I see a Government grasping the nettle on a range of issues that appeared to be beyond the political palate of the last Government and a desire to secure economic growth and rebalance how limited public money is spent for the better, and although I know that change takes time, I also see a public who are struggling and angry. When the public get angry, they reach out for forces that feed on that anger and have always fed on that anger. Between the emails from those telling me I am complicit in the murder of Palestinian children or the enabler of Pakistani rape gangs, I receive emails pleading with me not to try and be more like Reform and not to try to outdo right-wing populist rhetoric. While I appreciate the frustrations of those who send me those emails, they rarely suggest an alternative approach. Well, here is mine. We accept that we live in a country that is broken. We acknowledge that there are people living in dire need of—[Interruption.] Am I out of time? No way! I recently met a Minister who was keen to stress to me that so soon after 14 years of Conservative Government, we must not forget that on these Benches we are still the disruptors. I believe that that is a good lesson for all my hon. Friends, especially those on the Front Bench.