Well, North Cornwall: Thank you. What an incredible few months we’ve had on the campaign trail, and what an amazing way to start my term as your MP. To each and every person who has put their faith in me, supported me, joined me on the doorsteps, and encouraged me along the way, I will never be able to repay my thanks sufficiently. But I can certainly make my absolute best effort to be the brilliant MP North Cornwall voted for.

It’s an honour to be asked to contribute to local papers like this one, and I’m very glad to be given the opportunity to reach out to readers right across North Cornwall and beyond. Local journalism has been, and will always be, a very crucial part of holding us MPs, councillors, and politicians to account. I’ll be sharing updates about my work as your MP each and every week, with a contribution right here, letting you know what exactly I’ve been working on and campaigning for on your behalf up in Westminster.

The truth is that while myself, my team, and a large majority of North Cornwall are still ecstatic over our election win, there is much, much work to be done. After our traditional ‘Pull-In’ ceremony in Launceston on Saturday, I travelled up to London the following day to get underway with this work. This Tuesday, we elected the Speaker of the House, and later that same day I was officially sworn in as an MP. Many of you will be delighted to know that of course, I took the parliamentary oath in Cornish. Time and time again during my campaign, I proudly said I was “from Cornwall, for Cornwall''. I meant it.

Now, it’ll be my job to hold this Labour government to account, and champion local and national issues in Parliament. Some of my top priorities as North Cornwall’s MP will be to solve the serious lack of NHS Dentists down here in Cornwall, slashing wait times for both hospital appointments & ambulance wait times, fighting for more social and affordable housing, cleaning up our rivers and seas of sewage, and addressing the drastic education funding deficit our Cornish pupils face.

These are just a few of the key issues I aim to tackle head-on, but there are so many huge problems I’ll be fighting hard to solve. This is just the start - and it’s imperative to me and my team that my constituents feel able to reach out with any problems, issues, or anything they need to get in touch with via my constituency office.

Finally, I’d also like to congratulate all of the other newly-elected Cornish MPs, including my fellow Lib Dem colleague Andrew George down in St Ives. I can’t wait to get started working alongside you to fight for a better Cornwall, for one and all - Onen Hag Oll.

Ben Maguire

Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall