'Bring on the general election!' says very confident Conservative MP for Milton Keynes

Ben Everitt, who represents MK North, posted his upbeat words on Twitter immediately after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the July 4 election date yesterday (Wednesday).

He wrote: “Bring on the General Election. We have a record of delivery in Milton Keynes. More police than ever before. Hospital expansions completed. Knife crime down.”

This morning Mr Everitt expanded on his optimism, telling the Citizen: "I’m so proud to be the MP for Milton Keynes North since 2019 and I’m looking forward to campaigning to represent the constituency for another five years.

“In 2019, I pledged 600 more police officers for Thames Valley Police and we didn’t just reach that target, we completely smashed it. We now have 870 more police officers than 2019, and more officers than ever before.”

He added: “We’ve secured massive amounts of investment into our local NHS from the Maple Centre, to the new 22-bed ward to the two new Community Diagnostic Centres delivering hundreds of thousands of extra tests, checks and scans every year. And we’ve got a brand new Women and Children’s Hospital on the way before 2030.

“And I have fought and will continue to fight to protect our green spaces and rural areas from Labour's reckless over-expansion. 63,000 new houses across MK would be complete madness. My pledge to the people of Milton Keynes North is I will fight those plans every step of the way.”

The MP concluded: “Getting out and about and meeting people across our beautiful constituency is the best part of my job. I can’t wait to do more of that."

However, the city’s MK South MP, Iain Stewart, has stayed silent. The Citizen contacted his office yesterday evening for a comment about the general election but we are still awaiting a response. Mr Stewart has not posted anything about it on his social media either.

Following recent boundary changes, he will be standing in a new constituency that spans as far as Buckingham. The changes mean Milton Keynes will now be split into three constituencies and have three MPs. instead of two.

MK North will ‘gain’ Stony Stratford while MK South, to be called MK Central, will lose parts of Bletchley but gain other areas including CMK, Campbell Park and Broughton. The Conservative standing for MK Central is local young man Johnny Luk, who gave up his job last year to campaign for a win.

The new third constituency will be called Buckingham and Bletchley and, confusingly, it will span two local authorities - Milton Keynes Council and Buckinghamshire Council.

Meanwhile, Labour is today preparing its massive campaign to topple the two incumbent Tories and is hopeful its candidates will gather enough votes.

Chris Curtis is the candidate for Milton Keynes North while Emily Darlington, currently a leading local councillor, will fight for the MK Central seat.

MK Labour Party posted a photo on social media after yesterday’s announcement, showing its candidates and supporters.

They wrote: “Ready to go. Ready to serve. Vote Labour on 4th July.”