A very packed week in Westminster this week, focused understandably once again on our support for the people of Ukraine.
On Monday Parliament passed a Bill to enable us to pass tougher sanctions and to close the loopholes used by Oligarchs to launder their dirty money in London. The Bill has strong cross-party support and is making its way through the legislative process at unprecedented pace.
That doesn't mean that we haven't been doing anything else, though!
Since covid restrictions were lifted, we've once more been able to have people come to Parliament for meetings, drop ins and briefings, so it was great to meet with the team from Manchester University to talk about STEM careers - I'm really keen to make sure their new innovation zone has a positive impact on our area, especially working in conjunction with the advanced materials centre due to open in Rochdale.
On the same theme, I met with the Institute of Physics to talk about equality in STEM - very few people from a low-income or disadvantaged background get into STEM careers and I want to understand why that is so something can be done to change that.
Also this week I had the privilege of hosing the Royal National Institute for Blind People at a drop in session for Parliamentarians to see how they've partnered with Kellog's to launch "NaviLens". This is an innovative phone application which enables blind or partially sighted people to navigate around shops, public transport and more without assistance. The system is also being tested out at Euston Station and I was pleased to spot it on the way to my train back up north. It's a simple change to signs and displays which would make a huge difference to a lot of people.
The stand out moment of the week was when President Zelenskyy of Ukraine remotely addressed Parliament. He made a passionate speech on behalf of his people and called on the UK to redouble its efforts in supporting Ukraine. He's a brave and remarkable man and the Ukrainians are lucky to have him leading them at this time.
I also joined a briefing this week on our efforts to house Ukrainians who are coming to the UK. We have a responsibility to them to ensure they are safe and well cared for when they arrive.
A nice change of pace this week as receiving an award from the Society of Independent Brewers for my work on cutting beer duty. Along with several other colleagues who have breweries in their constituencies, we lobbied the government to reduce beer duty to support smaller brewers and independent pubs. We made significant progress in the last budget and I hope there's still more we can do.
This week I also had a chance to speak to the Brexit Opportunities Minister to put down my marker for our area - there are some really easy changes which can be made to the law now that we've left the EU which would benefit people and businesses in Heywood and Middleton, so I got my bid in early!
This week also saw International Women's Day and a number of events to mark this. I joined colleagues in paying tribute to some of the remarkable women in our Parliament and later in the week joined a reception for women in journalism too.
This weekend I was back out with our local teams, knocking on doors and delivering leaflets - if you see us out and about, do say hello - I love to hear directly from people about their priorities.
As always, stay safe and have a great week!
