Wiltshire MP's reflect on first year in Office
Liberal Democrats Brian Mathew and Sarah Gibson became MP's a year ago today (4/7)
Last updated 4th Jul 2025
Two Wiltshire MP's marking their first year in office are telling us how they've found it.
Liberal Democrats Sarah Gibson and Brian Mathew won their respective seats in Chippenham and the new constituency of Melksham and Devizes in the 2024 General Election.
Ms Gibson succeeded Conservative Michelle Donelan, who chose to run in the new constituency, but was beaten by Mr Mathew, as the Tories lost many seats across the country.
Thousands of emails, gas masks and a new train station
Mr Mathew told us it's been a busy year, as he's handled over 8,000 constituent cases, sent 30,000 emails to or on behalf of the people he represents, and held 28 in-person surgeries.
"I don't think anything can really prepare you for being a Member of Parliament," he said. "It's such an exciting job to be involved with and also really fulfilling."
While he admits it's not possible to solve every problem, Mr Mathew said he's been able to help "often".
He's been able to help rehouse an elderly couple from Afghanistan who were being thrown out of their home during a storm. The family had working links to the British Military, with the grandfather serving as a doctor and the son working as an interpreter.
After several urgent phone calls, a solution was found and the family resettled.
Mr Mathew has also been able to help with the war in Ukraine after being contacted by Avon Protection, based in Melksham.
They explained that Ukrainian soldiers needed gas masks to protect them from CS Gas being dropped by Russian drones over the trenches in the Donbass region.
After speaking to John Healy, Secretary of State for Defence, and to Maria Eagle, the MOD's Procurement Minister, the money was secured for 65,000 gas masks to be created in Wiltshire that will be sent to the front line in Ukraine.
Mr Mathew told us there's plenty he wants to achieve ahead of the next scheduled election in 2029.
One his major ambitions is to secure a new train station for Devizes.
He said: "The railway does pass about three miles outside Devizes, but there's no station. We've got quite a lot of interest in that from railway companies so let's see what we can do on that.
"I'm organising a meeting on that fairly soon and that's also to see if we can improve the number of trains that get to Melksham every day."
Championing rural areas
Liberal Democrat Sarah Gibson took the seat for Chippenham with 45 per cent of the vote - replacing Conservative Michelle Donelan.
She said it has been a "busy and challenging" but also "exciting" time.
"It's possibly been more varied than I realised the job would be and I'm not sure I was quite prepared for all the sort of archaic rules and language that went around Parliament. That was possibly a bit of a learning curve that I wasn't expecting", she told Greatest Hits Radio.
"But I think it's an immensely a rewarding job and it's about listening and supporting and enabling, which is kind of what I was doing before on a smaller scale as a Wiltshire counsellor, but also as a tutor at the university, so I feel it's a sort of progression from what I was doing before."
In her first year, Ms Gibson has addressed concerns over speculative housing in rural areas and stood up for small businesses in a Bill Committee on employment rights.
She has also headed a Chamber debate on NHS dentist provision in the South West.
Over the next four years, and possibly beyond, she is planning on continuing to speak up for rural areas.
"I was brought up in this part of Wiltshire, so it's an area I know well and I feel very strongly that it has immense amount of potential and I'd really like to make sure that I spend the next four years championing that and championing our part of Wiltshire.
"I'm very proud of where we live and I was very disappointed that the industrial strategy had no mention of Wiltshire and only one reference to 'rural' and I'm worried that this government doesn't seem to see the importance of rural areas and that we're going to be left behind", she explained.
"I think my goal for the next four years is to keep rural Wiltshire in the forefront of everyone's minds. I think we need those innovative companies who start here to stay. We need to make sure that they can grow here and that others move in so that our young people have the good jobs with the career progression that they deserve, so that they can afford a home in the place where they grew up.
"It's not that much to ask and I think, if I can be the driver for some of that growth and to support that, we will be able to therefore have the sort of good local public transport and infrastructure that we deserve."