What does a day in the life of a Member of Parliament look like? Get an inside look at Farnham and Bordon MP Greg Stafford's first year in Parliament!
He shares the challenges and rewards of representing his constituency, from tackling national issues in the House of Commons to addressing local concerns in the community. Discover his commitment to improving infrastructure, both physical and digital, and his vision for Farnham and Bordon as future tech hubs.
From debates in Parliament to meeting with residents, see how Greg Stafford is working to make a difference.
00:00Well, it's been an absolutely fantastic year.
00:03I'm so honoured and thrilled to be the Member of Parliament for Farnham and Borden and Liphook and Hazelmere and the surrounding villages
00:08because it's the most fabulous part of the world.
00:11But as you said, we've had a lot of challenges both nationally and locally over the last year as well.
00:17So that's been really interesting to get my teeth stuck into those.
00:20You asked me what I do on a daily basis, Monday through Thursday, sometimes even Friday when the House is it,
00:25I'm here in the House of Commons and that means that I'm attending bill committees.
00:30I'm speaking in the chamber, raising issues that constituents raise with me, asking questions to ministers on residents' behalf,
00:37going line by line through pieces of legislation to make sure that we pass good laws and hopefully stop or at least amend bad laws.
00:45And I also make sure that I'm questioning through those committees ministers, members of the who work in the NHS and that kind of thing.
00:54But also here I have people who come to see me, which make the vital difference to our constituency.
00:58So, for example, recently I've had representatives in from EE and Vodafone because of the problems we have with rural broadband and rural mobile coverage.
01:09So they come here and I can make sure that residents' concerns are raised.
01:12But then Friday through Monday morning, I'm in the constituency meeting local people, having surgeries where people come to talk to me about their issues and problems that I can try to solve,
01:22seeing local businesses, promoting them if I can, seeing charitable organisations and, of course, all the fun stuff like going to events, socials, socials and that kind of thing.
01:32Because we have such a fabulous and rich spread of businesses and charities and local groups that actually I don't have enough hours in the day or days in the week.
01:44And thus far, not enough days this year to see every single one of them.
01:47But I hope over the four years that I absolutely do.
01:50The highlight for me has been meeting people, talking to them, seeing their successes and also dealing with their issues.
01:56But more specifically, I really want to solve some of the infrastructure problems that we've got on our own.
02:01And that's physical infrastructure, like roads, like the railways, like schools and doctors and surgeries, but also that digital infrastructure that I've got.
02:09Making sure that Farnham and Borden constituency, which has real potential to have some of the top tech hubs here, actually does have that.
02:18And the creative industry does have that so that through rural broadband, through better mobile coverage,
02:23we can make sure that we are connected digitally as well as physically.
