IN the months campaigning before the election, I would hear that people ‘weren’t sure about Keir Starmer’; ‘Didn’t think anything would change’ or that we were ‘all the same’.

The Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street and said the work of change would begin immediately. And he meant it - willing to take the tough decisions the previous government consistently shelved, knowing someone else would clear up their mess.

After only seven weeks a lot has changed already.

The past few weeks, this government got in the room and sorted out disputes which had been dragging on for two years, costing the public untold millions, with so many vital hospital appointments cancelled as the previous government refused to negotiate in good faith with our nurses and doctors, at the expense of thousands left feeling frustrated, ignored and used as scapegoats by the previous government.

Our Employment Rights Bill is on its way and will contain the mechanism for the minimum wage to become a real living wage, stop one-sided zero hours contracts and fire and rehire.

As well as a whole host of measures to make work pay and improve quality of life which I know will be invaluable to so many people here who, like the rest of the country, saw the worst performance on living standards since records began under the last government.

With these changes, I’m finding that the conversation is beginning to change. There are a lot of things in this country that are broken and need fixing. We all know that.

It’s daunting. It will take time and difficult decisions, but we will work constantly and consistently to make those changes.

However, even though things aren’t working, that doesn’t make it OK to resort to the type of violence and criminal disorder that we have seen on our streets around parts of the country recently.

Those people don’t speak for our communities. Those who engage in criminal activity will face the strongest possible consequences. Anyone who stokes violence, online or in person, can face jail time. We have already seen individuals charged; more will follow.

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology has met representatives of X, Google, Meta and TikTok, to make clear their responsibility to work with us to stop the spread of hateful misinformation and incitement.

Companies must step up and counter misleading and inflammatory material. They have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their users and should not be waiting for the Online Safety Act to come into force.

The images we’ve seen on our televisions and social media feeds go against everything we are as a nation but I'm so proud of our people in Weston for keeping calm, rejecting hate, and keeping all our communities safe.

Over time we will get back to a more harmonious place as a country, part of this is our clear message that violence and prejudice can not be tolerated, that the toxic impact of social media encouraging civil unrest must not be tolerated, then the conversation starts to change.

We know things need to change. Many things are broken. People are understandably angry and frustrated. But we cannot allow the blame for how bad things have got to fall on the weak and the vulnerable.

Now, more than ever, is the time for politics as public service. A government committed to making that change. The start of the road back to restoring people’s hope and faith that politics can be a force for good.

Part of my role in this is making sure that I have the best team in place in Weston-super-Mare to deliver for our people.

Over the next two weeks my new chief of staff Jane Murch, constituency support officer Matt Redmore and parliamentary officer Tom Smith will start their jobs, I will have recruited a full-time caseworker and secured an office both in Weston and Westminster.

We will be fully in the service of the people and communities of Weston, working hard to make Westminster work for Weston and building back trust with honesty, compassion, consistency and fundamentally action, to improve all our lives.