New Somerset MP wants to make difference and improve things

A newly-elected MP says it is an “incredible privilege” to be given the chance to make a difference.

Anna Sabine was elected as Liberal Democrat MP for Frome and East Somerset on 5 July.

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset, Ms Sabine said her priorities in representing her constituents will be to improve NHS services, manage road safety, and support local business owners.

“I think we need more people from kind of normal backgrounds in Parliament,” she said.

Ms Sabine says what sparked her motivations for getting into politics was her distrust of the system in the last few years.

“Not only was I not happy with the government that we had, but I just felt the state of public life was very poor,” she said.

“I looked at my teenage children and thought what they thought about the world, and whether adults and politicians were solving the issues of our day.”

“I just felt I needed to put myself forward, with a lot of real world experience as opposed to being a career politician to see if I could do something to improve things.”

Ms Sabine, who moved to the area 20 years ago, received 16,580 votes from her constituents, taking the lead over Conservative candidate, Lucy Trimnell, by more than 5,000 votes.

She said getting the result had been a “lovely” but difficult adjustment.

“It’s a very strange experience because you don’t really let yourself think that you might win,” Ms Sabine continued.

“So actually, you don’t think about being an MP until suddenly at 5am on Friday morning, you find out you are one.

“As an adult you can process that, but as children it’s very hard to understand why suddenly your parents are going to be away most of the week, each week.”

Ms Sabine is a mother to two teenagers, and says with it comes “a huge range of skills and abilities”, on top of her background in business.

“Hopefully by the end of this week we’ll be much more practically set up, and raring to go,” she added.