Theatrics is everywhere in politics.

We see it in the USA, with last week's tariffs - the calculation underlying which appears to have been made on the back of a fag packet, and shows that populists have no interest in the improving the living standards of those they claim to represent. 

We see it with Reform promising to transform the country based on one single issue with very little substance of their promises on this, or anything else besides.

And we see it with bots and AI posts faking engagement to ‘game the social media system’ in their favour.

But away from those theatrics, our Labour government has performed a huge lift in terms of stabilising an economy thrown out of kilter by a government which knew it had no chance of winning the 2024 General Election.

Much is made by some of the Employers’ National Insurance rises, but steps had to be taken to address the massive current deficit we were left with.

Shoring up the Labour market and other structural adjustments can be painful in the short-term but Britain desperately needs to make the shift to being a higher wage, higher productivity economy after years of lagging behind our peers.

And people are already starting to see the benefits:

Wages are up, many markers of business performance are up, and last week we delivered a pay rise for over three-million people, including many thousands on minimum wage in mid Cornwall.

In this difficult context, to continue to deliver the world class public services we were elected to deliver, we all know difficult trade-offs have had to be made – and it is clear that, whilst we have, in each of those trade-offs sought to protect the most vulnerable, many different sections of society have had to play their part in ensuring our economy can face these tough trade-offs.

Politics has, for too long, not been honest with the electorate that the quality of public services and investment we want doesn’t come for free and we must maintain our commitment to delivery on this.

However, my only caveat would be that, if economic headwinds rise further and additional headroom is required to keep us on track, this must, unequivocally be borne on those with the broadest shoulders.

I know my constituents remain stoic, but impatient for progress, particularly on the economy, living standards, and public services. We have begun to bring down waiting lists from record highs, with over two-million new appointments created in our NHS. We’ve shown by investing in nursery places in St Austell, for example, that when we build homes, we build the infrastructure to go along with that. We must continue to deliver.

But, if further pressures on the public finances arise through the course of the year, it is clearly the very wealthiest and the very wealthiest alone that must step up to play their part.

Because politics isn’t about theatrics. It’s about delivering real change to real people’s lives, and our opposition would do well to remember that.