Last Tuesday I made my first speech in parliament. It happened very quickly. With all my energy used up fighting the general election, it was not until the weekend before the event I started thinking about what I wanted to say.

Inside the House of Commons there is hype around someone giving their “maiden speech”. It is something that other MPs ask you about. I just wanted to get it over with, so I could get on with the job of holding this government to account on behalf of my constituents in North West Durham. There are certain traditions about how involved you can be in the chamber until you’ve given your maiden speech.

So, I sat down to write it. Originally, it was eight minutes in length, then it was cut to four, because of the demands of the debate. I had one thing in mind. I simply wanted to convey my initial reflections of being a member of parliament, and what my impressions were of the system in which I found myself.

I wanted to express the widespread feeling that the Commons represents a system of fear, oppression and privilege

To my surprise, the speech got quite a bit of attention. Not, I think, because it was particularly well-written or a great performance, but because it tapped into a feeling of distance, alienation and dismay that thousands, if not millions of people, are experiencing.

Play Video 4:07 Laura Pidcock gives her maiden speech – video

I wanted to express the widespread feeling that the House of Commons represents a system of fear, oppression and privilege for so many people, past and present. I also wanted to convey that it should not be respected by virtue of its opulence or longevity, but that respect for our parliament in 2017 must be earned, by eradicating the crushing poverty and inequality that exists in Britain. I wanted to show quite directly my frustration at sitting opposite people who know nothing of the communities they so confidently talk about and lord over.

My disdain for the government and the cold-hearted, dystopian nightmare it has become only increased when the vote on Labour’s amendment to the Queen’s speech (which sought to lift the pay freeze on poorly paid and undervalued public sector workers) was announced. The government won the vote, we lost, and the coalition with the Democratic Unionist party bore fruit – for the Tories, at least.

In their glory, the Conservatives cheered. They laughed, they smiled, and gestured to us like kids in a playground. But it was far from a joke. To me, their laughter was blood-curdling: they were laughing at the very emergency and public services that they praise when it suits their purpose. To laugh at freezing a person’s wages is grotesque, and proof that they are completely disconnected from the people they have the privilege to represent. In real terms, this was a reaffirmation of a pay cut, and I view with utter contempt Boris Johnson’s mutterings that he would like the pay freeze to end. It is nothing more than playing politics in preparation for a leadership bid.

To have your wages fall in value year after year places a heavy weight on a professional person’s soul. To have your endeavours devalued, to have to deal with the cumulative effects of state-sponsored austerity, and then to have the decision-makers laugh at you as their “deal” comes to fruition must have been truly sickening.

Applauding a public sector pay cap? Tories are cheering their own demise | Polly Toynbee Read more

But there is hope. The general election and the millions of votes registered in opposition to austerity have gone some way towards taming hardline Conservative ambitions. The electorate has seen off a Conservative majority, grammar schools, the so-called dementia tax, the scrapping of free school meals, and much more.

We are, however, sadly still governed by a party that is comfortable with poverty, and happy to leave people destitute through its sanctions regime. It heralds higher employment figures without an analysis of the exploitative nature of the workplace today, and continues to pursue an economically flawed model of deficit reduction that justifies cuts to public services, with all the costs to society and the economy that entails. So our struggle continues. Luckily, we are stronger and more confident than ever in that fight.

The Tories are ruthless protectors of their power, and they have shown they will stop at nothing to cling on to it. But our movement is energised, more united than ever, diverse, hopeful and strong. Every day more and more people are being pulled into this powerful mass movement, people who are willing to organise, protest, argue and demand a better society, and I don’t think it will be long until their energies are rewarded.