Truro and Falmouth's new MP shares her priorities after convincing win at polls

The new MP for Truro and Falmouth has said the scale of the job the Labour party faces is huge but she is up for the challenge.

Jayne Kirkham was elected as the new MP for the constituency in the early hours of the morning after winning the majority of the votes with 20,783 compared with former Conservative incumbent, Cherlyn Mackrory who got 12,632 votes.

Jayne joins four other Labour MPs in Cornwall who along with the two Lib Dems wiped the Tories off the electoral map in the county.

Ms Kirkham told the Packet she was “very, very pleased, honoured, privileged” to be chosen by the people of Truro and Falmouth to represent them.

“It feels surreal really,” she said. “The landscape has changed so dramatically overnight it’s hard to adjust to it really, but very, very pleased, honoured, privileged and fortunate to get the chance to be trusted to make the changes that the Labour party has promised.

“Particularly for Cornwall where we haven’t had a Labour MP since 2005, it’s fantastic.”

(Image: Jayne Kirkham/Facebook)

She said with the national debt bigger than it’s ever been and the tax burden bigger than it’s been for 70 years there is still a lot to do and the resources to do it are very limited.

“So it’s daunting,” she said. “It’s challenging but we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think we could make a difference.

“We have a plan in the manifesto, we have our six steps things we want to deliver quickly so I’m very much hoping I can go up and do that and get some of those new hospitals and doctors’ appointments and dental appointments, and teachers and police officers, that we need.

“There’s so much that Cornwall can gain out of this Labour government and it is so good that there is going to be four Labour MPs up there [House of Commons] to make sure we do get that.”

She said she just wanted to say a big thank you to all those who voted for her and that she wanted to get on with the job, but admitted that the scale of the challenge was huge and will be a lot of work at the start.

She says the change that’s needed will take time and being a town and county councillor for the past few years and talking to people on their doorsteps for the past two years she knew what needed doing.

“We know what needs fixing,” she said “We know there’s a housing crisis, that the NHS is on its knees.

“We know wages are low, house prices are too high and we know that people are struggling with the cost of living and energy bills, and these are things that we do have plans to deal with - and now we’ve been given the chance to go and implement those plans, and make the difference that we need to make.”

She said it will take a lot of time to restore them to the level that they were at the end of the last Labour government so it will be a lot of work but she wanted to crack on and get started with.

“I think obviously the last few years of the Conservative government they have not covered themselves in glory, what they’ve done to the economy, what they’ve done raising taxes what they’ve done with our public services and with austerity.

“Things have been decimated, people want change and the Labour party has been saying we will offer that change in a realistic and sensible and stable way.”

She says she wants to get investment in Falmouth and Truro and build the area’s economy. “Get those decent jobs and good wages and skills into Cornwall with training and education and public services as well as sorting out our NHS, our schools, police officers and housing.

“We need to start delivering change for Cornwall because people have had years and years of this now and it’s enough.”