Yvette Cooper MP: After 14 years of chaos, the country has voted for change

Yvette Cooper MP writes: Thank you to everyone who voted to re-elect me here in Pontefract, Castleford, Knottingley and Altofts – it is an honour to represent our area and I’ll always work tirelessly for our towns.

Knocking on doors during the election campaign, people told me time and again that things just feel broken after years of Conservative government. That’s why Keir Starmer has pledged to deliver a decade of national renewal, and why our Labour government has already hit the ground running.

The new Health Secretary is already working on plans for more NHS appointments, the new Education Secretary has already begun teacher recruitment and the new Chancellor has already set out plans to get the economy growing.

For me, it is also a huge privilege to be asked by the Prime Minister to serve as the new Home Secretary. On Saturday I went to Buckingham Palace to receive the ceremonial seals of office from the King. The first duty of government is to keep our country and communities safe and our borders secure. So I am clear that the work to strengthen our borders and to get more police back on the beat starts now.

Since then I have launched the first steps in establishing a new UK Border Security Command to go after the criminal smuggler gangs who organise dangerous boat crossings – beginning the recruitment of hundreds more cross border police to work across Europe.

Those gangs are making millions from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk and it is a disgrace that they are getting away with it.

For towns like ours, one of the most important things is getting more police back on the beat. That’s what I’ve been campaigning for here in the Five Towns for years. So since I was appointed as Home Secretary, I’ve met with police chiefs from across the country to discuss plans to restore and rebuild neighbourhood policing – getting more officers and PCSOs into communities and town centres. And I’ve been out walking with neighbourhood police to discuss the challenges they face from shoplifting, antisocial behaviour, mobile phone theft and knife crime, where I am determined to ensure they have the powers they need to make our streets feel safe.

I will keep working locally to stand up for people here in our towns as well as making sure the issues we face round here are taken up in the heart of the Labour government too.

But all of us know that after years of decline, it will take time to turn things round. Coming into government, it is clear that the damage done by the Conservatives is even worse than we had thought. But that is why it is so important to begin the hard work to turn things round.

Keir Starmer has been honest that changing a country is not like flicking a switch. But bringing people together with common sense and serious hard graft, and making politics about public service, instead of just gimmicks and headline chasing, can make a huge difference. The votes have been cast and counted, let the change begin.