This week I witnessed an unbearably poignant sight. As I was filing out of the House of Commons with MPs from all parties following the tributes to Jo Cox MP, I looked up to see Jo’s three-year old son waving down from the public gallery. It was utterly gut-wrenching. One day he will fully understand the extraordinary impact his mother had. I did not know her well. But it is clear she was determined, passionate, vibrant and kind. Her loss is a blow to her constituents and to Parliament. But above all, it is a tragedy for her family, who we in Parliament must work to support in the coming years. What do we do about security for MPs? Like Nigel Jones, I believe we should take sensible precautions, but there’s no case for special protection for MPs. The sad fact is that police officers, probation staff and A&E medics take risks every day. We have to show courage and get on with our jobs. That’s what I intend to do. And with the EU referendum upon us, we owe it to our country to put aside our emotions, and focus purely on the evidence. We must ignore too the personality politics. Too many things have been said on both sides which should had been expressed differently or not at all. I believe we should remain. But I want to be very frank with my constituents: some of the points made on the Remain side are overblown. I do not accept for example the claim made by Frances O’Grady (TUC) on Tuesday that somehow our employee, social and environmental protections would be junked if we go. But where ‘Remain’ is absolutely correct in my view is in its concerns about the economy. There can be no credible doubt that over the next ten years at least our country will be less prosperous if we Brexit. And at a time when we are still borrowing more than the entire Defence budget, that is not something we can afford. If we want a strong NHS and decent schools here in Cheltenham, we need a healthy economy. And that is not Project Fear. Just remember the Scottish referendum. Alex Salmond scoffed then that the ‘Better Together’ campaign was scaremongering. History proved him spectacularly wrong. If Scotland had voted to leave, collapsing oil prices mean it would now be utterly bankrupt. Project Fear was in reality Project Fact. I do not love the EU. My only loyalty is to our country and our people. And it is the British people and their livelihoods that I will be thinking of when I cast my vote.