It was a special weekend to be Stretford and Urmston’s MP, as we came together to celebrate the 75^th anniversary of our amazing NHS!

I was delighted on Saturday to be able to attend the NHS Party in the Park event – organised by Cllr Jo Harding – at Golden Hill Park. We also welcomed Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting and cut a birthday cake to recognise the occasion. Wes and I then visited Trafford General Hospital, to meet with staff and patients, to hear about plans to grow the services offered on-site in the months and years ahead.

The party was a lovely event to end a week in which my involvement with the Energy Bill Committee came to an end. The Bill will now proceed to its third reading – as amended – and I will be keeping an eye on its passage through the House. It’s been a really interesting and valuable experience and as someone who is still a relatively-new MP, I have learnt an awful lot about parliamentary procedure. There were a number of clauses debated on Tuesday and Thursday, but I was particularly draw to the one I spoke to on onshore wind. The Tories continue to block onshore wind in England and it’s ridiculous given it is the cheapest form of energy production. But sadly the Government were unwilling to compromise on their recent very blatant pandering to the NIMBY lobby.

On Thursday we finally received the ruling I had long expected: the Illegal Migration Bill is in fact illegal. The Home Secretary made an Urgent Statement on the decision and I made sure I was present to ask how the Government could have spent £140m of taxpayer money without checking that the Rwandan system for refugees was – and I quote – ‘reliably fair and efficient’. It isn’t and I hope the Supreme Court upholds Thursday’s ruling.

Earlier in the week I spoke in an important debate on the handling of frozen Russian assets. Other countries are pulling ahead of us in terms of ensuring that such assets can be repurposed to Ukraine’s recovery. I highlighted the fact that the Government promised to act on this more than twelve months ago: the billions and billions of pounds of damage done to Ukraine’s infrastructure must be repaired, and this work must start as quickly as possible.

It was a pleasure on Wednesday to welcome my constituents Susan and Peter to Parliament with their two sons. They were in London for the day and had secured tickets for Prime Minister’s Questions. I met with them after the session for a quick wander around Parliament: much as I was when I was first elected, they were shocked by the noise in the Chamber. I thought Keir Starmer had much the better of the exchanges again and I was personally very pleased to see the leadership continue to press for the homes we desperately need to end the housing crisis. Sunak is increasingly looking all at sea and I thought in many ways the best question was from my Labour colleague Alison McGovern, who asked – in light of the latest forecasts – what the PM would do if he fails on his pledge on inflation.

As good as it was to see Alison pushing the PM on this it’s even more interesting seeing the faces of the Tories when such points are made. They know things are not going well, and it seems to me that it won’t be long before we have another Tory civil war on our hands…