With any new year, and any new Parliament, comes inevitable change.

After four and a half years of fantastic work as part of my team, my Senior Parliamentary Assistant, Tommy Gilchrist, will be leaving at the end of this month to take on a new challenge and a new opportunity with one of my parliamentary colleagues.

Many of you will have come across Tommy in the time he has been with me; he has been an instrumental lead in supporting me on my constituency priorities. Whether it was working tirelessly on all matters related to HS2; pressing for the early delivery of the much-needed Towcester Relief Road and Farthinghoe Bypass; supporting residents in the fight against the two Strategic Rail Freight Interchanges; campaigning for an expansion of healthcare services across South Northants; seeking faster and further rollouts of superfast broadband to all corners of the constituency; or any of the many other issues and responsibilities Tommy has handled over the years, he will be much-missed by the team and constituents alike. Tommy’s sheer dogged determination to make progress on the issues residents care about, and his warm and engaging approach in undertaking this, has been recognised by all those who have worked with him to deliver on these priorities. I would like to thank Tommy for all of his hard-work and to wish him well in his next adventure working for Elliot Colburn MP on behalf of good people of Carshalton and Wallington; Tommy has assured me he will continue to follow our progress with great interest, and should you need to contact him you will still be able to reach him via tommy.gilchrist@parliament.uk.

I am, however, delighted to welcome Laura Dunn to my team as my new Senior Parliamentary Assistant! Laura will be taking on Tommy’s role in the next two weeks, and she is going to be fantastic at picking up where he left off. Laura will be getting in touch with the key local campaign groups and individual stakeholders in the coming weeks and months, and will very quickly be fully up-to-speed with the campaign priorities she will be responsible for. You can contact Laura via laurae.dunn@parliament.uk. It is a pleasure to have Laura join us!

So, it’s thank-you and goodbye to Tommy, and a warm welcome aboard to Laura.