COLUMN: I'm sorry, now it's time to prove myself as MP

The first thing to say is that I’m sorry for the language that I used and for any offence that was caused. I was 21 and a student, I’m now a married father of two and a Member of Parliament. Clearly I have grown up and I wouldn’t express myself in the same way now.

It’s been really heartening to receive so many supportive messages from constituents, in the face of death threats, abuse and even journalists harassing my elderly grandparents, so thank you to everyone who got in touch.

Whilst the immature language of my 21-year-old self was obviously ill-thought out and wrong, the broad issue I was trying to address at the time was that many people work hard to save and plan for a family, and make tough decisions about whether they can afford to have children.

I had found that people in that scenario often find it very frustrating when others, albeit a tiny minority of people, appear to be taking advantage of the benefits system. The benefits cap now ensures that nobody who doesn’t work can earn more than the average working person, and we have a two child limit for claiming child benefit.

Obviously a number of posts and tweets emerged over the course of the week and I have honestly and genuinely apologised for writing those things, albeit a long time ago.

Moving away from just my own story slightly, I do think that going forward there needs to be a discussion on how we deal with historical comments as we try to encourage younger people to engage with politics.

I am from a generation that has grown up, and made my mistakes, online. The truth is normal people make mistakes, and as new generations enter politics these kinds of revelations will happen more. I regularly hear the complaint that politicians are not like normal people, but if we want more normal people to stand for Parliament we have to accept that people sometimes cock things up, and these days chances are they cocked it up on social media for all to see.

If my experience, of being told to kill myself hundreds of times, of death threats and harassment of my family and friends, becomes normal, then I don’t see how we can honestly tell anyone it is good to enter in to politics or public life.

I’ve apologised for what I’ve said, I can’t unsay it, and I can’t promise I won’t ever make a mistake in the future.