A NEW job, a new baby and a global pandemic - 2020 was not an ordinary year for Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie after she was elected last December.

She was praised for advocating disability rights and dog theft penalties but criticised for abstaining in a vote to extend free school meals.

On the anniversary of her election, Ms Baillie sat down with the SNJ to take a look back at her first year in office.

“We all had great plans on being elected and I had a big sweep of things I wanted to get done but I’m still really pleased to see that so much has happened in such a difficult year,” said Ms Baillie, who left her job as a solicitor with Blandy and Blandy, a law firm in Reading, to represent Stroud.

The MP said she was pleased with initiatives in the region such as the new police academy in Berkeley Green, the £9m grant for the Cotswold Canals Connected Project and efforts to keep the high street as open as possible, but stressed it was difficult seeing what Covid-19 had done to people’s lives.

As of Saturday, December 26, at least 114 people have died in Stroud after contracting coronavirus, and across the UK, 690,000 more people have fallen into poverty than if the virus hadn’t struck, according to a model by the Legatum Institute.

Ms Baillie, who lives in Frampton, said she would like to see more cash support for charities, community groups and businesses which volunteered to help during the pandemic.

“The community groups that have come out during the pandemic have completely blown my mind,” she said.

“We saw people helping their neighbours during lockdown and a real effort from all councils.”

In October, some Stroud residents did not feel enough cash was forthcoming, when they left 100 empty plates outside Ms Baillie’s office after she abstained from a Labour motion to extend free school meals over the holidays.

“I was really sad because they’d been completely misinformed,” she said.

“I think it was important to send a message to the Government but I didn’t agree with Labour’s proposal.

“It makes me quite cross when it’s about poverty and children because there is no MP in this land from any party who wouldn’t be doing their best to help families.”

Ms Baillie received free school meals herself before leaving her family home in Scarborough aged 15.

“I had a bit of a chaotic family life, a pretty poor family and we were free school meal kids - and I just left.”

She moved down south after finishing A-levels at Scarborough Sixth Form College and worked her way up to become a solicitor without going to university.

When asked what her teenage self would think of her today, she replied: “I don’t think she’d believe it but I hope that if she did accept that it was true, she’d be quite proud.”

Creating alternative routes to success for other children in the constituency is near the top of Ms Baillie’s to-do list, who has been made a further education ambassador by the Department of Education.

“I think SGS College could be a hub for local businesses and talent and for making sure that people are re-skilling if they lose jobs.”

She said she wanted to see more apprenticeships, investment in the high street and a bigger tourism industry in the area.

Other plans for the New Year include a bid for the world’s first fusion energy plant in Berkeley, creating an art display at Tricorn House while working to improve the building permanently, and taking part in the environmental land management scheme, which will reward farmers for sustainable farming practices.

In one of her last acts of 2020, Mrs Baillie sent a Christmas card designed by Thrupp Primary School student Oscar McCracken to the Prime Minister.

Asked what she had wanted from Santa this year, Mrs Baillie said: “Some sleep. I think the whole country needs a bit of a rest.”