I have to keep pinching myself.
Every day since last Saturday.
I keep asking myself how is it possible that this has happened? How can an ordinary, working-class lad from Whitwick become the prospective parliamentary candidate for North West Leicestershire? Isn’t the Tory Party supposed to be rich land owners and toffs? That’s certainly what our critics would have you believe if you listened to them.
Only the Conservative Party isn’t the party of the rich. It’s the party of the workers, the vulnerable, the aspirational, the people.
And of course, in today’s Conservative Party an ordinary, working-class lad from Whitwick can earn the right to become an MP.
But I was lucky.
The work ethic given to me by my parents, and the support of some brilliant teachers, got me a career in the RAF and the character to come back to my home town to build a successful business.
But I know that not every one of my classmates have been so lucky. I know that because I see them every day as I walk around town. I represent many of them as a County Councillor for Coalville.
There’s a whole host of reasons why. Coalville in the 1980s and 90s wasn’t the place it is today, for a start there were fewer jobs, I’m proud that this Conservative government has transformed North West Leicestershire into a place with far more people are in work than the national average (and we have far fewer unemployed people as a result).
It’s sad that sometimes, at home, for some expectations were low. We all knew people at school whose families had adopted worklessness as a way of life. Truth be told we knew that school had given up on them too.
That should never be allowed to happen.
But it still does today. North West Leicestershire still lags behind when it comes to qualifications. According to the Office for National Statistics we have more residents who have no qualifications at all than the average for England, we have significantly fewer residents with Level 4 qualifications and other professional qualifications.
The simple fact is that educational outcomes matter. They have life long impacts on earnings, on health and life expectancy.
And educational outcomes aren’t just about the certificates you receive, they are about physical education and character education too.
As your MP my focus will be clear. Being North West Leicestershire’s voice for our young people is my clear mission. Even the longest serving of MPs are only around a few years, but the impact a good MP can have on their constituency can be transformative.
That’s what I want to be for you. Constantly badgering ministers to deliver better outcomes for the children of North West Leicestershire.
I want every child to be as lucky as I have been.
But in reality it isn’t luck. It’s family, it’s dedicated teachers, it’s community, it’s a government who cares and an MP that wants to build positive relationships with our schools and colleges. It takes a village to raise a child.
As your MP I pledge to be one cog in the machine that delivers better educational outcomes for our children. From that everything else grows.
