This is a once in a lifetime decision

It has been a long and at times frustrating campaign, one in which the arguments and issues have often played second fiddle. But in a way that all underlines how important this decision is. Campaigners on both sides are passionate about their vision for Britain and, however tedious you have found the campaign, I hope that the importance of casting a vote on this most important of democratic decisions is still clear.

This is a once in a lifetime decision and when the British people give their orders they will be adhered to. If we vote to leave, we are out. If we vote to remain, we stay.

Earlier this month a new piece of artwork was unveiled in the Palace of Westminster.

Named “New Dawn”, it commemorates the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the campaign for women’s votes. It is positioned so that people looking at it will literally be standing in the footsteps of the women and men who came to Parliament to fight for women’s right to the vote.

As Wealden’s first female MP and the 377th woman ever elected to Parliament, I am especially grateful for their courage. But we all have a responsibility to those who took huge risks to fight for participation in the democratic process, a process they recognised as being so valuable but which was out of reach for so long.

Whatever your view, when you fill in your postal vote at home or walk into your polling centre, I hope that you will revel in the privilege. We will see what the country decides on June 24th, but whatever that decision is we should be proud as a country that it is ours and nobody else’s.