Last week was another in which this zombie government showed itself to have given up on governing. In just our second week back after the summer recess, there were early finishes most days and very few divisions. This reflects the fact that the Prime Minister continues to avoid pushing through legislation that may prove controversial with his own Tory colleagues – and I’m especially frustrated as it seems the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill is one of the casualties. It’s never been clearer that we need a general election.

For me personally it was a hectic period as I was getting to grips with my new role in the Whips Office. I can already see that this will be a really interesting job, and I’m learning lots about parliamentary procedure and protocols. Being a Whip also means that I now attending the regular Frontbench meetings and it was great at that session to hear Keir speaking so clearly about our planning for the next election campaign.

Although most of my time was spent focusing on my new role, I did manage to make three spoken contributions in the Chamber. I have been distressed to see the terrible news of the devastation caused by flooding in Libya. There are many reasons for this – and of course climate change and storms are key to this. But Libya’s infrastructure has been weakened by a decade of infighting and I pressed the Minister to provide the technical expertise needed to help the Libyan people upgrade their warning and evacuation systems – and their approach to town and city planning – as part of their recovery.

There was also an Urgent Question on Voter ID changes. We know that many residents are concerned about the implications of the change to mandatory photo ID for voting, and I spoke to people in the local elections who weren’t going to be able to go out and vote as they didn’t have the documentation necessary. The Government has said they will review the impact of their changes, but there has been little detail on this as yet. I therefore asked the Minister who will be conducting the independent review and that its terms of reference will be. Sadly, the Minister was unable to answer…

My final intervention last week was in Business Questions on Thursday. I am regularly contacted by distressed constituents unable to access mental health services and was horrified the Tories may be planning to scrap their promised reform of the Mental Health Act. I therefore asked Penny Mordaunt whether the rumours were true that the reforms would be set aside in favour of more vote-winning ideas. I’d love to say there was a denial of this, but none was forthcoming.

Outside of the Chamber I was pleased to host a couple of important events. The first was a Q and A event for GM MPs with the Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester to hear about the latest public transport and active travel progress across the conurbation. I also hosted an event for Nationwide Building Society who have a branch in Stretford. I have been really impressed with Nationwide’s work to make banking accessible to the local community: they employ people who speak community languages (including a Cantonese speaker to support our growing Hong Kong population), have specialist communication cards for those with struggle to explain their needs, and do active outreach work to share their services. It was great to meet the new branch manager Sam on his first visit to Parliament.

In a week where the quality of our rivers and waterways was again in the news, I was pleased to pop into the WI’s Week of Rivers event. This is such an important issue and I’m grateful to our local WI who have been raising awareness. It was good to see Longford Ward councillor Sarah Haughey at the event, whose ward is bordered by the River Mersey to the south.

It was a privilege to attend Macmillan’s coffee morning event in Parliament, where they updated me on the statistics on cancer patients in Stretford and Urmston. These coffee mornings raise huge sums up and down the country and I am proud to be hosting my own session from 10am-11:30am, on Monday 25th September. It would be great to see you there if you are able to attend: the coffee morning is at St Bride’s Church, Old Trafford, M16 9NW.