I stood for election as the Labour MP for Southampton Itchen because it’s my home, because I know and care deeply about the issues that affect our neighbourhoods, and because I can now fight in parliament to make a difference for people here at home.

Our public services have shaped who I am today. Before I was elected, I worked as a university lecturer, councillor, and previously a Cabinet Member and Deputy Leader of Southampton City Council. From the nurses in the Tyneside hospital where I was born, to the social workers and my adopted family as a child, I know first-hand the difference it makes whether these services exist or not, and whether a government invests in them properly or not.

My parents taught me the value of hard work: they worked several jobs at a time to support our family, and moved from Northumberland to Hampshire in the 1980s to find better prospects for us. I was inspired and encouraged by the teachers in my state school, and I went on to be the first in my family to reach higher education. I came to this city in 2000 to study and now I teach Spanish and Linguistics at the University.

Southampton Itchen is my home constituency: it’s where my wife and I made our home, where our children were born, and it’s where they now go to our local schools. Since I was elected a Councillor in 2011, I’ve worked hard to speak up for people I meet, and to make our communities even better places to live, learn, and work.

All of this is what drives me: the fight to ensure that everyone gets an education that will empower them, to give everyone the chance to do well in life whoever they are, to live in safe and thriving neighbourhoods, and to retire with dignity. Years of Conservative chaos has seen the last government pull up the ladder of opportunities for so many people, and starve our public services of the resources they desperately need.

This Labour government that will build a fairer, better future for everyone in Southampton Itchen. It’s what the country needs, and it’s what people voted for. We know that won’t be instant, and it won’t be easy. Tough decisions will be needed, and Labour will be upfront with people about that. But I will speak up in parliament to get the economic growth that Britain needs, and a better deal for our city of Southampton.