The Tory leadership contest is finally over and the tiny ‘selectorate’ of Conservative members have chosen Liz Truss to lead our country as its next Prime Minister.

Heaven help us!

I’ve come up with a ‘to do list’ for the new PM to tackle the tough challenges facing my constituents.

Number one must be urgent financial support for householders, businesses, churches and charities during this cost-of-living crisis.

My office is receiving heart-breaking emails from families and small businesspeople sick with worry about how they will make ends meet.

Labour would freeze the energy price cap and set up a £600 million contingency fund for energy intensive businesses – financed by taxing the excess profits of the oil and gas giants.

I also want the PM to implement genuine levelling up to ensure people in the north get the kind of resources enjoyed in the south-east.

For Northwich that must mean support for Cheshire West’s levelling up bid to build a new Winnington Bridge.

It should also mean investment in our public transport. Northwich Station should never have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that it collapsed.

Northwich Guardian: Liz TrussLiz Truss (Image: PA)

Unfortunately the far platform will still be out-of-bounds to disabled people even after it’s rebuilt. Again, there’s a funding bid to make improvements, but no guarantees.

Local areas shouldn’t be made to compete for resources when an infrastructure project is clearly needed.

Something else Truss should be tackling, which is particularly relevant to Northwich, is the disgusting pollution of our rivers with raw sewage.

Truss has effluent on her hands because as Environment Secretary she enacted huge cuts to Environment Agency funding.

Specifically, £24m was removed from the environmental protection budget, including sewage monitoring, between 2014 and 2017.

At the same time, United Utilities – sewage polluters in chief across our region – paid out an annual average of £284 million to its shareholders since 2010.

And in 2021 it distributed the second highest payouts among water companies in bonuses, base pay and benefits to executives, dishing out £4,218,000.

Any new and incoming Prime Minister should be urgently addressing the mess this country is in.

That means support for people through this cost-of-living emergency and more investment in public services for the many, instead of this profiteering for a few.

Unfortunately, I have no confidence in Liz Truss. It’s time for this Government to step aside.