Smith aims to keep working

ACHIEVEMENTS ON CITY COUNCIL WILL BE TAKEN TO WESTMINSTER

- WILLIAM TELFORD

NEWLY elected Tory MP Rebecca Smith has said how important it is that Plymouth has a female MP, again after nine years.

The city councillor took the South West Devon seat for the Conservatives at last week’s General Election, after Sir Gary Streeter’s retirement. She said it was good to have a woman representing the city in Parliament again, something that has not happened since Labour’s Alison Raynsford lost to Johnny Mercer in Moor View in 2015.

She also said that she would continue the work she has done with the city’s Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Commission, set up following the murder of teenager Bobbi-Anne McLeod in 2021.

Ms Smith, who won with a 2,112 majority, said: “Plymouth elected the first female MP in 1919 with Nancy Astor and pretty much, with the exception of one very small term, we have had continual female MPs until 2015. When Johnny Mercer won in 2015, that ended that run of female MPs. I do think it is really good in a city where there are three MPs in this wider area to have a woman represented, and so I’m really excited about that.”

Ms Smith said she would now take the work she has done with VAWG to Westminster, and added: “When I chaired that commission, I actually got nominated for an award, and I have got the certificate at home and I always thought that I would take that to Westminster if I ever got elected to remind me of what I achieved as a councillor to spur me on for what I could achieve as an MP.