I THINK you've got to try to be consistent in politics.

To set out clearly what you believe in - and then stick to it.

Then it's up to the people you represent to decide whether they agree with you and support you - or whether to vote for someone else who offers something different.

I want to stand up and fight for local families and pensioners, for the hard-working middle and lower income majority.

To people who work hard, play by the rules and pay their way, to those who respect our country's traditions and uphold its values, my message is simple: I'm on your side. That's why I'm in politics.

I believe that if you live in Britain or want to live here you should work hard and play by the rules. You should obey the law and pay your way.

That's why I took the unusual step of refusing to help someone who walked into one of my surgeries recently.

I think MPs should be local, available and accessible. I do seven local surgeries a month, one in each of the townships or wards I represent. But people should not just have to come to me, so I meet people at my local office in Wrens Nest Road and visit people at home as well.

And I do my best to help if I can.

But sometimes you just have to say no - as I did at a recent surgery when a man came in saying he needed my help with a problem he had with his citizenship status.

He said he had come to the UK, been given permission to stay, but that the Home Office was trying to remove him from the country.

When I asked why, he said he had "been in trouble and been locked up."

It turned out he'd been convicted of drugs offences and been to prison.

My response was clear. I told him that I thought he should have to leave. I said that I believed that if people who had come to the UK did not obey the law, they should not be allowed to stay.

I'm on the side of people who obey the law.

It's my job to help decent people who make a contribution.

And I think the people I represent would expect me to stick to what I say.