A YEAR has now passed since Bury North was painted red following the election of James Frith as the town’s MP.

The dad-of-four describes the past 12 months as ‘hectic’, but says it has been an experience he has relished getting his teeth into.

And while he believes his first year can be classed as a success, he insists there is still much more to come.

“We have bedded in, settled down and established a strong reputation for getting stuff done,” said Mr Frith.

“It is an amazing job. The parliamentary part and the constituency part are both really very different jobs. I am sure most MPs would say it, but the constituency stuff is the best part of the job, and the most instinctive for me.

“This first year we have dealt with 1,100-1,200 bits of casework. Some will not provide silver bullet answers, but we have resolved a lot.

“It has been a huge change to my life, but it is something I pursued so it does not feel hoisted upon me.

“It is helpful to get through any one year cycle with anything, whether it’s relationships, house, jobs. It gives us a chance to say ‘what shall we do differently, what shall we do more of and less of’. And crucially, ‘how do we go up through the gears?’"

Prior to being elected last June, the dad-of-four pledged to be an ‘active, visible, and energetic’ MP, and so far, he believes he has kept to his word.

He added: “I think accessibility is the most important thing.

“I am a fairly straightforward guy. I want to be out there in front of people and accountable.”

As a young man, Mr Frith performed at Glastonbury as lead singer in rock band Finka.

However, a record deal never materialised, and he opted to pursue his other lifelong passion - politics.

In fact, he can clearly point to the moment when he first became interested in politics. He says it was when, as a child, he witnessed the disappointment on his father’s face after hearing Margaret Thatcher had won her third term in office.

He also credits watching the 1987 film ‘Cry Freedom’ as a ten-year-old child as instilling him with ‘the concept of injustice and political struggle’.

After becoming politically active at the age of 18, his road to Westminster began when he was elected as the local councillor for Elton Ward in 2011. Four years later, he was selected as the Labour candidate for Bury North at the 2015 General Election. Although he came close to winning, his hopes were dashed after a recount saw him lose out by just 378 votes to his Conservative rival David Nuttall.

However, he managed to pick himself up to run again last year, and triumphed with a convincing majority of 4,375.

One year on, he cites keeping Bury’s walk-in centre open as his biggest achievement to date, but his role in lobbying Rosso to re-route the x41 Red Express through Ramsbottom is another contribution he says he is proud of.

As for the biggest challenge, it has been balancing his role as a husband and father with his role as an MP.

Mr Frith met his wife Nikki about 20 years ago; the pair now have four children, Jemima, Henry, Lizzie, and Bobby.

“We build a lot into weekends,” he said. “We kind of do a one weekend on, one weekend off.

“Nikki has always known me as being somebody that two to three times weeks would be rehearsing in the old days, or travelling away with work.”

Shortly after his election, Mr Frith was fortunate enough to be appointed to the Education Select Committee. As part of his role, he quizzed George Osborne on education in the north back in May.

Speaking about the experience, he said: “It was strange, not least because he did not have two heads. You kind of build these people up as something they are not when you meet them.

“It was one of many moments in the first year where you go ‘goodness me I’m speaking to X, Y or Z’. There are quite a lot of those moments.”

That same month, he was also appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to shadow housing secretary John Healey.

What the next 12 months have in store remains to be seen, but for now, Mr Frith is busy launching ‘The Big Conversation’, a scheme aiming to reach out to those within his constituency who may never have met their MP, while working with local hospices to improve end of life care in a bid to solve the country’s social care problem is another project he is keen to push forward with.

So what does the future hold for him, and does he harbour personal ambitions of progressing further within politics?

“I want to be able to walk before I can run,” he said. “From a parliamentary point of view, there is a lot still for me to learn.”