This month, I began my Summer Surgery Tour, where, across six days, I will be travelling to over 50 communities in South Devon, including Totnes, Kingsbridge, Salcombe, South Brent and Dartmouth.

As I write this column, I have just finished my second day, and it was great meeting so many constituents and learning about the issues affecting them and how my team and I can help.

When I reflect on the last two days, what’s interesting is how many of the issues you have raised are linked. People have spoken about sewage, buses, lack of broadband, local housing and SEND – seemingly disparate topics, but what underpins them all is a deep frustration with the status quo and, particularly, with Labour’s first year in office.

One conversation I had today with a farmer about the changes to inheritance tax really stuck with me. So much has happened since the Government changed the rules around Agricultural Property Relief that it can be easy to overlook what a serious impact it had and continues to have.

When I look back over the last 12-months, this policy announcement from last October was one of the first signs that despite all their talk during the election, Labour really doesn’t understand rural communities.

Since then, they have unfortunately hammered home the message. Whether it’s investment in urban but not rural transport or cutting funding to rural councils, Labour has demonstrated not simply an absence of understanding about rural communities but an unwillingness to learn too.

That is despite many of my colleagues urging the Government to improve support for rural Britain during a debate I led back in March. Spurred by my conversations in recent days, I re-read the transcript from that debate, and it is staggering just how many of the issues constituents have raised are happening elsewhere in other rural areas.

We had the MP for Strangford in Northern Ireland talk about bus waiting times. The MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh, and Selkirk in the Scottish Borders speak about bank closures. And the MP for Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-shire, one of the most northernly constituencies in the country, highlight difficulties with housing.

What this debate spelled out is that a substantial part of country has simply been left behind by successive Governments. It’s time for that to change. And I will continue to push for the Government to address the rural/urban divide when parliament returns in September.

I cannot wait to continue my Summer Surgery Tour. The days I have done so far have been really rewarding, and I am looking forward to having more conversations with constituents in the coming days. The visits are quite brief, as it’s such a big constituency, but my team will be with me to pick up all issues raised so we can work on them.

A full list of my locations and times for each visit can be found on my website: https://www.carolinevoaden.com/summer-surgery-tour

Thank you to everyone who has come out so far, and to those planning on seeing me in the next few weeks, I look forward to meeting you soon!