'Swindon girl' and new MP Heidi Alexander has ambitions for town

“I’m a Swindon girl, born and bred. It’s the honour of my life to be elected for my hometown.”

Heidi Alexander, the newly elected MP for Swindon South, where she grew up said her husband Martin Ballantyne did not blink when she said she wanted to overturn their life in South East London, where she had been an MP, and return to Swindon to fight this election.

And having succeeded, she said she had several ambitious targets for the next five years before she has to face the voters again.

Just minutes after learning she would be the new MP, Ms Alexander told the Local Democracy reporter: “One of the government's big priorities and mine, is to get the economy going again.

“I want to build a high-wage local economy here in Swindon, with good jobs. We need jobs that people can build a life around rather than just surviving and getting by.

"This has been a big problem in Swindon since Honda left, and it’s very important to address that.

“I want Swindon to be a place where you don’t have to leave if you want to get on.”

Health is another priority: “We need to fix the problems in the NHS, we need to sort out the delays in getting an ambulance, the delays in seeing a GP and the serious problems with NHS dentistry.

“I want to get to grips with crime, especially knife crime. No young person should be a victim of such a horrific crime like that.

“We need to look at places where they have struggled with and got to grips with, knife crime and learn from best practice from across the country.

“I want the government investing in a joined-up approach and I want it to be trialling schemes in Swindon. I want it to invest in youth mentors and more nighttime police, and I want to put Swindon at the front of the queue.”

Finally, Ms Aleander said she wants real progress on improving the town centre: “I will be putting together a town centre task force, working with others to  make it a place people will want to go to again.”

After having walked something like 28,000 steps on polling day in getting out her vote, Ms Alexander chatted with supporters while waiting for her Labour colleague in North Swindon to discover he too had been elected before setting off home for some well-deserved sleep.