Karen Lumley is the Conservative MP for Redditch. She talks to us about the Welsh affairs select committee, NHS cuts and making her mind up over the Severn crossings.

Do you think the gains made by the Conservatives in Wales at the last election mean that there's no safe ground now for Labour?

That’s been the case for the past few years. I'm from an old Labour council [Wrexham, in Wales] and now it’s a Liberal-controlled council. Areas like Wrexham always had a Labour MP and now we're moving towards a different kind of politics. We’ll see over the next few years and months with the new boundary changes in Wales. It will be interesting to see what happens there and how that plays out. I think it’s an exciting time. I think it’s important that we have seats of equal value.

By holding select committees for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland affairs, does Westminster politics appear too Anglo-centric?

Obviously i’m a unionist I believe in the UK. But having spent a long time fighting a no vote in Wales and losing it, I understand that the people of Wales wanted a devolved assembly and that’s great. The Welsh select committee met this morning and actually talked through issues affecting the whole UK. I think it's important that Wales has got its own identity, as Scotland and Northern Ireland have.

Should the Welsh Assembly be granted greater financial powers?

I think that's for the people of Wales to decide! There will be a free vote in March next year. We came into this government saying that we want to devolve power down - whether it’s the Welsh Assembly or the local council. We elect local councillors to look out for the needs in their area and I hope there’s going to be a lot more of that.

Where are you standing on the issue of the Severn crossings toll? Is it too high?

I’m going to decide in the middle of September. I’m visiting the Severn crossings with the Welsh select committee. Thats one of the first reviews we’re doing of the year and I don’t want to prejudge my position on that. I just want to make sure I’m there and I’ve heard all the evidence from people who know far more about it than I do.

I noticed you were a big supporter of the NHS. How are you responding to the cuts in the budget especially the reported £1.9bn in Wales?

We have promised there won't be any cuts right in at the sharp end, but there are things that need to be done. It's really important that GPs are allowed to have more say because they're the people that deal with the patients.

So how is the coalition getting on?

I think it's good. I think — if you’d have asked me that six months ago I would have gone: "What?". We wanted to win the election, but we did and we didn’t. I addressed the deputy PM as "my right honourable friend". It's grown up politics. It’s not the yah-boo politics. It's what we're elected to do and we need to get on and do it.