It’s been just over a year since I had the privilege of being elected as Woking’s Member of Parliament.

In my final column before Parliament heads into summer recess, I wanted to share a glimpse into the quirks of Westminster, the unexpected lessons, and some of the behind-the-scenes moments you might not have seen during my first year as your MP.

After a sleepless night waiting for the votes to be counted at Woking Leisure Centre, I finally found out I’d become your MP at 5.30am on Friday, 5 July, with a majority of 11,246. Thank you – it’s the honour of a lifetime!

The work started almost immediately. On Monday, 8 July, new MPs travelled to Parliament for the first time. I was pleased to bump into a couple of my Liberal Democrat colleagues on the train journey up – Guildford’s new MP, Zöe Franklin, and Chichester’s new MP, Jess Brown-Fuller.

Arriving in Parliament as a new MP is a strange experience. It’s a bit like turning up for your first day at school without knowing where your classroom is. You have no office, no staff, and no guide to show you the ropes.

You're handed a laptop with a live Parliamentary email account and left to figure it out from there – you don’t even get a job description or handover notes!

It’s a crash course in multitasking from day one. My inbox was already bursting with hundreds of emails from constituents – all needing help, answers or action (as well as some very kind congratulatory messages).

At the very least, a map would have been useful! I think it’s fair to say that I spent a fair amount of time getting lost in my first few weeks. The Parliamentary estate is enormous – the Palace alone has over 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, and 4.8km of passageways.

I’d like to see us adopt a system more like the US (arguably the only admirable thing about American politics right now). They have a transition period of around three months, allowing for a smoother handover between outgoing and incoming administrations.

That’s a far cry from the experience I had last year – arriving on day one without a rest, office, or staff. New British MPs must advertise for staff and hunt down office space. Once you factor in notice periods and negotiations with estate agents, we naturally start behind where we should be – through no fault of our own.

Thankfully, Parliament went into its summer recess on 30 July – three weeks after I was elected. That gave me some time to get things set up, work through the mountain of correspondence already in my inbox (in my first year, I’ve sent well over 10,000 emails!) and attend some fantastic summer events across Woking – meeting lots of constituents along the way.

MPs aren’t allowed to make a speech in the House of Commons chamber until they’ve made their maiden speech. This can take weeks or even months – but thankfully I was early, making mine on 4 September.

I spoke in Parliament another 20 times before Christmas, though it’s been a learning experience. Securing permission to speak in the House of Commons is one of Westminster’s quirks that takes some getting used to.

There are a few different ways to do it, but one of the more bizarre traditions is known as “bobbing.” You quite literally bob up and down – standing and sitting repeatedly – in the hope that the Speaker will call on you.

When I learned that my predecessor had chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Yoga, I thought it was ridiculous. But after bobbing for four hours just to speak in two debates, I can now see why!

I’ve also hosted an adjournment debate – another way backbench MPs can speak in the Chamber. It allows you to raise a specific issue with the relevant Minister and receive a direct response.

Mine was on 10 October and focused on the rising cost of rail fares, overcrowded journeys and delayed trains – an issue that affects many Woking constituents and commuters across the country, and one I personally struggle with on a near-daily basis now!

What happened after that debate was quite entertaining – and a story I’ve never shared before...

There’s a man who sits at the entrance to the House of Commons, dressed in black and armed with a sword, whose job is to defend the Chamber and maintain order on the estate.

Once the debate ended, he stormed into the Liberal Democrat Whips Office and demanded to speak with our Chief Whip “about the choreography of your members”.

My team and I hadn’t broken any rules – but what we hadn’t yet learned was that in Westminster, rules are often less important than tradition. By inviting more Lib Dem MPs to the debate than the government had present, we could have accidentally embarrassed them by preventing Parliament from closing for the day.

We didn’t do that – and after a small telling-off, the situation was resolved. But it pointed to a wider learning from the year: understanding how to operate within Westminster’s deeply traditional ways of working.

Since then, I’ve had more opportunities to speak in the Chamber, meet with Ministers, and deliver positive outcomes for Woking. This includes securing Woking Borough Council a lifeline worth millions of pounds by convincing the Government to lower the interest rate on the town’s debt.

In fact, I’ve now been told I’ve spoken too much! I’ve been pushed down the priority list as a result, meaning I’m often one of the last to be called in debates. Again – strange traditions...

The centuries of tradition don’t always lend themselves to efficiency. Voting takes a very long time. When the division bells ring, MPs must dash from wherever they are on the estate and file into the correct lobby within minutes. Five votes can take an hour!

When voting as a proxy (on behalf of another MP), the experience is even more ridiculous. I’ve had to cast a vote in one lobby, then dash around to the other side of the Chamber to vote again the opposite way.

Yet possibly my biggest learning of the year has been time management. As an MP, the demands on your time are huge. As I’ve explained, even just voting can eat up a lot of it. At the same time, you must balance your Parliamentary duties with your responsibilities in the constituency.

Going into year two, I want to focus more time on Woking and our villages. Whilst this won’t always be possible – you’re expected to be in Westminster for much of the week – it’s important to me that I’m in the constituency, meeting residents and businesses, and helping where I can.

So, if you have an event, or would like a meeting, feel free to get in touch via www.willforster.co.uk.

Thank you for all your support throughout my first year – I hope you’re looking forward to my second as much as I am!