THE housing crisis, baby loss and the Middle East conflict were all on the table when I met Truro and Falmouth MP Cherilyn Mackrory in the Hall for Cornwall near her constituency office in the city.

We spoke just after the government announced that following her campaign on baby loss, women who have lost a baby during pregnancy will be able to receive a certificate, allowing them to have their grief recognised.

Mrs Mackrory and her husband lost their second daughter, Lily, in January 2019.

“She had a diagnosis of very severe spina bifida at the 20-week scan,” she shared. “This lovely kicking baby that I had inside me was not going to have a life, so we had to opt to terminate the pregnancy. Two days later, I had to deliver her.

“That changes you completely. I had the best care possible at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, but when you get home without your baby, you have all this energy that was supposed to go into your new baby and you don’t really know what to do with it.

“Becoming an MP was something I thought I might want to do, so I thought I’d put the application out there and see what happened.”

When the last general election was called at the end of that year, Mrs Mackrory was a Cornwall councillor.

“Somebody asked me if I wanted to stand; three days later I was in London being interviewed, and three days after that I was selected, so I was catapulted into it,” she recalled. “It’s quite an unusual story to go from thinking about being an MP to suddenly being there.”

One of the first meetings she attended was the all-parliamentary group for baby loss.

“They were talking about the national bereavement pathway they’d introduced and done some good work on, but they were patting themselves on the back as if it was job done,” she said. “I knew from personal experience that while some things were working brilliantly, others weren’t, particularly around counselling for dads. My husband didn’t get anything and he really struggled. I wanted to see what I could do.

“I now chair that group. I meet parents all the time where their baby stopped moving at 38 weeks and they never know why or, even worse, somebody has made a mistake that has resulted in the death of their baby. It happens to more people than you realise.

“If, by telling my story and engaging with maternity services, I can improve chances for families and babies across the country, I feel I’m doing my bit to help.”

She’s equally passionate about the new Women and Children’s Hospital at Treliske, which she describes as “a real game-changer”, adding: “They expect it to be delivered in 2028 - I’m told spades in the ground very soon.”

Of her other achievements as MP, she singled out the delivery of the A30 – “that was a project started after I became an MP” – and the receipt of £132-million of Shared Prosperity Funding (SPF), which replaced European money.

Her latest leaflet says we’re receiving more money now than before Brexit, but that’s not quite the case — we got £132-million over three years, yet the Conservative-led Cornwall Council itself has said we need £100-million a year to keep on that trajectory.

“There’s been a lot more money coming in than just SPF — you need to take into account infrastructure projects, all the levelling up projects, the community funding projects, Towns Deal money,” she said, pointing out that the Hall for Cornwall was refurbished using “significant” Arts Council funding.

With SFP due to end soon, what will replace it?  

“Nobody knows yet,” said Mrs Mackrory, adding that the government has committed to funding that might look different.

She has written to the chancellor in support of Cornwall Council’s deputy leader David Harris, who has appealed to Westminster several times to ask for fairer funding.

“David Harris is an extremely competent councillor. If he can’t find money in the coffers down the line, there is no money to be found. He has raised it very early rather than on reaching a crisis moment,” she said. “Councils are being asked to do an awful lot more with the same amount of money, or even less, and it’s just impossible. Demand on services is rocketing, particularly since COVID. We’ve got to change the way we fund councils, or the way we deliver services.”

Regarding the housing crisis in Cornwall, she recalled a surgery in St Agnes. “Fifteen families came through the door, all of whom were being evicted or their rent was going up exponentially because landlords wanted to flip it to a holiday let.

“Since that happened, I’ve been making the case to government.” She points to moves to put change of use to holiday let through planning, and the chancellor’s announcement of rebalancing the tax advantage for furnished holiday lets.

What of criticism locally that she toes the party line on Parliamentary votes? For example, the oft-mentioned accusation that Cornwall’s six Conservative MPs voted to dump sewage in the sea?

“I always ask people, is that what you think I voted to do?” she answered. “Because I didn’t. The vote everybody talks about was an amendment by an opposition peer … to stop sewage straight away, which would have meant it would have backed up in everyone’s loos. So that wasn’t realistic.”

A member of Surfers Against Sewage, she also sits on the environmental audit select committee. “I’ve visited other water quality pressure groups around the country, and we’re now in a place where we’re monitoring 100 per cent of what comes out ... We know how bad the problem is and water companies, and other polluters, are being forced to clear it up.”

Has social media abuse been a problem since she’s been an MP?

“It’s not pleasant,” she admitted. “People say you should roll with it, it’s what you put yourself up for. It isn’t - I put myself up to help people living in my constituency. I get that it’s part of the job now, but if I could do something to stop it, I would.

“But I have faith in the people of Cornwall that they’re not actually like that. If you speak to people face to face, everything’s okay.”

Following the tragic death in Gaza of Penryn aid worker James Henderson, does Mrs Mackrory feel that the government should now stop sending arms to Israel?

“First of all I want to pass on my condolences to James’ family - I’ve written to them via the Foreign Office to make sure they know they have my full support,” she said. “It’s incumbent on the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister to make sure the Israelis know that aid has to come in to Gaza and they have to do what they can to avoid a humanitarian crisis.”

However, she added: “Everybody understands that Hamas could stop this tomorrow if they handed over the hostages. There could be an end to this very, very quickly. Hamas does not want to do that and therefore Israel is going to carry on the fight. My priority is the family that live locally and making sure they’re supported in the best way that they can be.”