Hurst’s own Alison Bennett has been elected as Mid Sussex’s newest MP and becomes the first Liberal Democrat to represent Mid Sussex, following recent boundary changes. A delighted Alison said: “A special thank you to my family and thank you most of all to the wonderful people of Mid Sussex. This is a place that I am proud to call home, a place where people are made to feel welcome.”

Alison graduated from Cambridge in 1999 with a degree in Social and Political Sciences, then worked for British Airways and, later on, Donald Trump’s election in 2016 fuelled her desire to make a difference: “I was dismayed and felt helpless. I realised that while I couldn’t do anything about what happened on the other side of the Atlantic, I could have an impact in the village where my children were growing up.”

In 2019, Alison made history as the first non-Conservative district councillor for Hurstpierpoint in living memory. Despite the demands of local politics, Alison remains grounded in routine family life in Hurstpierpoint. “I experience the same issues as everybody else,” she admits. “I worry about the environment, get stuck in traffic. I walk my kids to St Lawrence, shop in Burgess Hill, and take my family to the Triangle leisure centre.”

For a year, she was a classroom assistant for Key Stage 1 at St Lawrence so will be known to many parents in the village. She is looking forward to the challenge ahead: “To be elected to represent you in Parliament is truly the honour of my life. I won’t let you down.”