Heading back to Westminster today, after a summer of working at home, I have mixed feelings.

It has been fantastic having more time meeting with constituents across Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, and working with the constituency team in Pool to ensure that case work is handled promptly and efficiently. But I’m also excited to be heading back to Westminster to carry on supporting the work of this Labour government.

Whilst there’s no doubt there’s some challenging times ahead, particularly in relation to the budget later this autumn, with NHS waiting lists falling, free school meals announced, big increases in housing budgets, a commitment from ministers to treat remote coastal areas like Cornwall differently in the local government settlement and the profile of Cornwall’s economic potential never higher on the Government’s agenda, there’s plenty to look forward to.

There will inevitably be some political elephant traps laid by opposition parties and I’ve been quite shocked at just how far right the Conservative Party has been dragged. It appears that they now have no qualms in stoking up social divisions in a similar way to Reform UK.

Sadly, we expect to see more of this from this Conservative Party, as potential rivals to Kemi Badenoch jockey for position ahead of a leadership challenge which I expect to come after the local elections in May.

The Lib Dems in Westminster generally offer a more nuanced opposition and are at least sharp enough to identify when the Government is doing something right. But it’s easy to make grandiose statements when, under the first- past-the-post system, they realistically have no chance of being anything other than a paperweight in a coalition government.

Their obsession with calling for resignations as well as a bizarre economic policy that, if their advice had been followed, would have landed the UK in a trade war with the USA months ago, lacks credence. Then there’s Reform. They currently have four MPs in Parliament although there’s rarely been a Westminster Party so capable of falling out with itself, given their number of MPs. They will no doubt be pushing hard on culture wars but failing to offer serious solutions to the issues that Britain faces.

There’s one really important point that someone made to me recently about Reform’s obsession with protecting the oil and gas industry (reminder: 92 per cent of Reform funding comes from the oil and gas industry and climate change deniers). He said that if you are in favour of increased oil and gas production, you are in favour of mass migration. His point was that as climate change leads to higher temperatures, people will migrate further and further north.

I thought this was quite ironic given Reform UK’s stance on immigration. I simply say that I’m so proud and thankful for the 265,000 non-UK NHS staff without whom the NHS would collapse…but of course if you’re in a private insurance-based medical system you wouldn’t care about that.