North East Hertfordshire MP Chris Hinchliff recently marked his first 100 days in office, and said it has been a "real privilege" to stand up on behalf of his constituency.

The 30-year-old Royston resident won the election in July by just under 2,000 votes and told trainee journalist Matthew Evans about his experience so far.

How have you found the first hundred days in your new job?

"They’ve been pretty intense. There’s been a lot of admin to get through, a lot of getting lost in the chamber and a huge number of people to get to know.

"But obviously it’s been a real privilege to have the opportunity to stand up on behalf of the people of North East Hertfordshire and start making the case for some of the changes we need."

How did you feel the first time you set foot in Parliament as an MP?

"It was slightly overwhelming, and it was certainly very strange. Fortunately, they had a huge number of people to chaperone us around and make sure we weren’t getting lost.

"Even just trying to find my lockers which were underneath various tunnels and into a different building – that I still don’t think to this day I could find again – was quite a task.

"And, obviously, there are now more new Labour MPs than previously existing Labour MPs. There’s a huge cohort of people to get to know so it was like a very bizarre first day of school."

Have you had any one-to-one meetings with ministers?

"Probably one of the things that you get the most opportunity with, in this job, is bumping into people in the corridors.

"It’s a great opportunity that’s unique to being an MP; where you just happen to walk past the secretary of state who’s responsible for something you’ve just been speaking to a constituent about and you can grab a minute of their time to talk to them about it.

"So, I’ve spoken to Wes Streeting about issues around healthcare and Bridget Phillipson about education just wandering around the House of Commons trying to get to wherever I’m trying to get to."

Gifts to politicians have been in the news a lot recently. Have you ever received any?

"Most of the organisations that are lobbying me are from the third sector – NGOs and charities – that probably don’t have much money to be going around throwing at MPs and nor should they.

"The only gift that I’ve been offered, I think, is a ticket when I was visiting Royston Town Football Club to stay and watch their match, but I actually had to go. I offered to pay but I had to leave anyway so the offer was declined."

How do you think this Labour Government has done so far?

"I’m not going to pretend there haven’t been any teething problems and I think that was always going to happen with a party coming into government for the first time in a very long time.

"Perhaps something that has been a little bit missed in all the media furore of the last month or so is that the Labour government has actually brought forward some really important legislation that’s going to profoundly improve the lives of my constituents.

"For instance, around reforming bus services, bringing rail back into public control and setting up GB Energy.

"All of these are going to have a really big impact on improving people’s lives and I think that’s great."