I would like to thank every single person who has taken the time to contact me over the past few hours, as well as to offer my congratulations to our new Member of Parliament for Swindon South, Heidi Alexander.
I would also like to pay tribute to my brilliant and dedicated team for all their hard work over the past 14 years.
It has been the honour of my life to represent you as your Member of Parliament since 2010.
I didn’t come into politics to just talk, I came into politics to do things, and I believe that we’ve done that here in Swindon.
We’ve come so far together since 2010, investing record amounts in our health services, including a brand new £26m Emergency Department at the Great Western Hospital, which is due to open very soon, and an £18m Government investment in the Radiotherapy Unit, which avoids the need for that journey to Oxford for anybody who requires that vital treatment.
The railways made Swindon great, which is why I am glad that the Government has invested in the electrification of the Great Western mainline.
We have upgraded major interchanges in Swindon, including the M4 junctions 15 and 16, and a host of other important roads.
Serving our town as your MP, and in my former Ministerial role as Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, I am proud to have passed laws to make sure that serious, violent, and sexual offenders stay in prison longer and made the sentencing system simpler and more straightforward. Plus, reforms to the law of domestic abuse and child cruelty.
Here in Swindon, I have worked closely with local residents, the Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson and our policing teams to make our town a safer and better place to live.
I’ve also fought hard to help restore our much-loved industrial heritage in the town, including securing £5m from the Conservative government’s Towns Fund to start the refurbishment of the Health Hydro, and restoration of our community assets in the Railway Village and, of course, the Carriage Works as well.
I share the concerns of local residents about the future of our town centre, which is why I am proud to have secured £26m in investment for the regeneration in and around Fleming Way.
I am also pleased to have secured money through the Conservative government’s Towns Fund for the regeneration of our weekly market, which is another example of the success we have achieved.
I would urge all local residents to continue to shop in our town centre and to support the many wonderful independent local businesses that we have here in Swindon.
I would also like to pay tribute to the many wonderful local charities that we have here in the town, whom I have worked closely with over the past 14 years. There are many ways in which you can become involved and support our local charities and I would urge local residents to continue to do so.
I am proud to have recently helped to secure the massive Panattoni redevelopment at the former Honda site, which is well underway. This project is expected to be worth over £1 billion to Swindon and will bring around 11,000 new jobs for local residents.
Working closely with North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson, I am also proud to have secured £21 million of Conservative government funding to build one of the first 12 Institutes of Technology in the country here in Swindon.
The new state-of-the-art IOT means that local residents no longer have to travel out of the area to gain a university-level qualification, bringing local, affordable opportunities right here on our doorstep and helping to raise local aspirations.
We’ve come a long way as a town and a community since I was first elected as your MP, and I can only hope that our new Member of Parliament works as hard as I have to support the wonderful people of Swindon South.
