It’s been a fairly extraordinary week, so I’m sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit to get my thoughts down.

Anyone who knows me knows my stance on hope. I don’t see it as wishful thinking. Hope is a practical and necessary driver of change. If we don’t believe things can get better, they so rarely do.

My parents’ generation understood that. They were ordinary people, living ordinary lives and raising their families in a country where they felt their children could go further and have opportunities they never had.

Andy Burnham’s first conference speech as PM

That was on my mind listening to Andy Burnham’s first Labour conference speech as Prime Minister.

There was a personal connection too. Andy spoke movingly about his dad, Roy. My dad was also called Roy – and both men spent their working lives at British Telecom.

I wonder whether either Roy, driving to work all those years ago, ever imagined their sons might one day have a part to play in shaping the future of this country.

I’m incredibly proud to serve the people of North Northumberland, and what I heard at conference was a politics rooted in the lives of ordinary people and the belief that government can make those lives better.

There were big ideas: a National Care Service, free at the point of use; reform of the pension triple lock to pay for personal care for the elderly, whilst pensions continue to rise; more council housing and greater public control of the essentials we all rely upon.

By-elections bring Labour hope

But what stayed with me most was the sense of hope.

“All Together Now” was the Prime Minister’s rallying call. For me, that means rediscovering the belief that we don’t have to tear each other apart. We can disagree with respect and still find the common ground where we can work together.

The week then delivered some of that hope closer to home.

Amy Spriggs and Melanie Fox secured Labour wins for the Amble and Hirst by-elections after a lot of hard work.

I know they will take that work ethic into their new roles and deliver great things for their communities.

That is what Labour is all about, and people are starting to feel it. It showed at Conference and its showing in the votes. Let’s raise a glass for a politics that belongs to us all – a hopeful new path where ordinary lives matter again.

Cheers.