Windsor's new MP Jack Rankin 'humbled' to be elected and shares key priorities

New Windsor MP Jack Rankin said he is ‘humbled’ to have been elected and will be focusing on a range of key issues.

Conservative MP Mr Rankin won the Windsor seat at last week’s General Election and replaces previous Windsor MP Adam Afriyie, who held the post for 19 years.

Mr Rankin said: “[I am] humbled.

“Voting for somebody to be your member of Parliament is putting a degree of trust in them.

“It’s saying I want you to represent me in Parliament.

“That’s thousands of people that have made that decision over the past week so it’s humbling and it’s obviously a great honour and I want to do them, but frankly everybody, as much justice as possible in the new role.”

With the Conservative Party losing 175 MPs across the country, Mr Rankin is now the only Conservative MP in Berkshire.

He said: “Obviously it's disappointing for us but the electorate are always right, and they’ve spoken across the country. And the message they gave across the country, sadly, was different to what they gave in Windsor, but millions of people have turned away from the Conservative Party and that’s our fault.

“We need to be honest about that and spend, in my view, some months talking about why that might be the case and talking about ideas about how we rebuild and refresh and rejuvenate the party.

“A blame game, that’s not useful, we have to learn the lessons of that and come back stronger.”

Mr Rankin added that ‘like a lot of people’, he has been ‘frustrated’ by the previous Conservative Government.

“In many ways, they didn’t deliver on what they promised. In many ways, the personal conduct of individuals within the Government and within the MPs, their personal conduct wasn’t at a standard that the public expect of them.

“And we very much drifted away, I think from our core values as Conservatives.”

The Windsor election saw Labour candidate Pavitar K Mann, who is also a Slough Borough councillor and leader of the Slough Labour Group, come in second place to Mr Rankin.

He believes that ‘naturally’ this would have happened due to the redrawn boundaries, with the Windsor constituency now featuring other areas, including parts of Langley.

“The message I’ve heard loud and clear on the doorsteps in Windsor was that people feel like they’ve missed an accessible and visible local Member of Parliament and so I intend to be just that.

“I’ve said I’ll open an office in central Windsor. I obviously live down in Sunninghill with my wife and two boys.”

“[The different patches] all need individual focus.

“ So, I intend to rotate surgeries around the towns and villages in order to be accessible in each and every one of them, over a sensible rota.”

Mr Rankin said he will also be doing things such as visiting community events and schools across the different patches of the constituency.

Discussing his key priorities, Mr Rankin said he will be meeting Heathrow next week to discuss ‘more equitable distribution of flight paths’.

He added that he will work constructively with Heathrow across a range of issues but added he will vote against the third runway proposals if they re-emerge.

Mr Rankin said he also wants to understand the latest position regarding funding for Channel One of the River Thames Scheme.

He said it is ‘unacceptable’ that Datchet, Wraysbury, Colnbrook and Old Windsor ‘don’t have the same flood protections that Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton already enjoy’ and will be ‘fighting’ for that funding.

Another key priority for residents has been accessibility to GP surgeries, Mr Rankin said, and explained that he will be working on issues surrounding this, including in Sunningdale.