I START with a big “thank you” to all those 100 or so constituents who’ve complained to me about the astonishing rise in their motor insurance premiums.

Most of those complaining were angry, too, that their premiums were up by 30, 40, or 50 per cent in a single year when their own driving record remained as it had done for years – claims’ and convictions’ free.

Some of those who did complain were, I know, frustrated when I said that I was carefully looking into the matter, but this would take time.

This wasn’t flannel.

The more I dug the more digging I had to do.

Initially I was led to believe that it was all due to ‘cash for crash’ frauds.

But many other areas across the country were facing similar or larger increases. ‘Cash for crash’ could not be the key factor forcing up insurers’ costs.

The pieces of the jig-saw finally fell into place when a senior insurer told me of the industry’s ‘dirty secret’ (his words) – of this extraordinary merry-go-round where insurers are selling personal details for £200 to £1,000 to claims companies who bombard folk with texts and calls to get them to claim for ‘whiplash’, then sell the claims to lawyers, who then sue the self-same insurers who sold the personal details in the first place.

Now the issue has taken off in the national media, there is a better prospect of some reform.

Yesterday in the Commons I called for an outlawing of these ‘referral fees’, of made-up claims for whiplash, bans on the sale of personal data – and restrictions on insurers penalising good drivers in areas like ours for the sins of others.

There’s been a lot of warm words in response, but now the vested interests are coming out of the woodwork.

So it will be quite a fight.

But with accidents down, and vehicle thefts a quarter of what they were, there is no justification for premiums to go on rising.

So keep your complaints coming until we get change.