'Melton will always have a special place in my heart'

Mrs Kearns was elected as Rutland and Melton MP in December 2019 with a huge majority of nearly 27,000.

She was elected in Rutland and Stamford at the General Election earlier this month with fellow Conservative, Edward Argar, succeeding her in the new Melton and Syston seat.

Reflecting on her time as Melton’s MP, she told the Melton Times: “I really loved it - Melton will always have a very special place in my heart.

“I felt it was somewhere I could make a difference.

“That is why I got into this job - to try to make people’s lives a bit better.

“In Melton, I found a place where there were things to fight for, like the new GP practice, getting the bypass built after 50 years and getting the levelling-up money. Also, saving the pubs we saved like The Bell at Frisby, The Blackhorse at Grimston.”

She revealed that she has been liaising with new MP Mr Argar on key issues to ensure a smooth handover if he was to win the local ballot: “For the last seven months Ed has been working very hard and campaigning with me, he’s been helping on the MMDR and to get more money for the county council.”

Mrs Kearns said it had been a challenging near five years as Melton’s MP with impact of the Covid pandemic and the full scale invasion of Russia but she said: “We saved 51 per cent of jobs by putting people on furlough, we helped with energy bills and paid for the vaccines.”

On the things she was disappointed not to have the time to achieve, she said: “I would loved to have seen the second GP practice open in my time in Melton and I would like to have improved the amount of money we get from the government for Leicestershire County Council.

"But I was able to achieve the amount we got locally through the levelling-up funding.

"I would like to have got my livestock worrying bill through parliament but the election stopped that.

“There was lots more I would have wanted to have done.”

Mrs Kearns was dismayed by the level of personal abuse she and many other MPs received, mainly online through social media.

She was devastated by the murder of her friend and political mentor, Sir David Amess, as he conducted his MP surgery in Essex back in 2021.

"Scrutiny of the government matters and is really important for our democracy but it is about the manner in which you do it and the intent,” said Mrs Kearns.

"Abuse and death threats and the normalisation of hatred towards those who give up other careers and a lot of their life for public service is unacceptable.”

She added: “What I’ve been touched by is I’ve had so many emails, so many Facebook posts from people across Melton and The Vale saying how much they valued me as their MP and that has really meant a great deal to me.”