It’s fair to say that last week the House of Commons didn’t cover itself in glory. You’ll have seen significant coverage about the row over the Speaker’s role in Wednesday’s debate on what is happening in the Middle East, and the fallout continues. What is important to note is that MPs backed Labour’s amendment calling for an immediate ceasefire, setting out a roadmap to a lasting peace and pressing for action towards a two-state solution.

Clearly Wednesday’s business dominated much of the week and threatened to overshadow Business Questions on Thursday. I use Business Questions a lot to raise local issues – access to free cash in Old Trafford and Partington Post Office have been recent examples – and I was very keen to raise the potential closure of the Kellogg’s factory in Trafford. This is a huge blow to the circa 360 employees as well as to the local community and I wanted to highlight the impact the closure would have on my constituents. The extended session took over an hour and a half, but I was pleased to be able to raise this formally with the Leader of the House.

The early part of the week I spent quite a lot of time attending meetings for Labour MPs about our position on Wednesday’s vote. I’ve been pressing the Party to call for an urgent ceasefire for almost three months and I was pleased to see our position shift, especially given the looming threat of an invasion of Rafah. Outside of these sessions I dropped into a number of events and also held several meetings about local issues. These included a meeting with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and other GM MPs to discuss parliamentary scrutiny of the work of the GMCA, and a virtual meeting with senior council officers about the Council’s plans for the regeneration of Trafford Wharfside. This is all a little up in the air in light of potential plans to regenerate Manchester United’s ground, but on the whole the aspirations and a clear plan for the area are welcome.

I also met with representatives from McCarthy Stone, who run the Oakfield Court complex in Urmston. You may have seen me appear on BBC News recently, with residents affected by spiralling service charges. A resident in one of the flats could be paying well over £900 a month to live in the facility after a series of significant inflationary increases. I made it clear that I was concerned about the issues affecting residents and that I will be keeping a close eye on any changes to the charge in September this year.

As ever I pressed on with my work on housing, meeting with representatives of the housebuilding and development industry and also speaking at a Fabian Society event on the need to build more homes to help young people get on the housing ladder. Things are getting much worse: the pressure on temporary accommodation in Stretford and Urmston is enormous and families are finding themselves in dreadful situations. I’m really pleased Labour has such a strong policy in this area.

I had a fairly quiet constituency Friday but did do my usual busy advice surgeries in both Stretford and Old Trafford. I spent the weekend at home, before returning to London late on Sunday afternoon, to meet with the Mayor of a small town in Illinois, who is looking to improve cyber security in local authorities. It sounds niche, but as a former Council Leader I know how important it is and it was far more interesting than it may seem!

I should acknowledge that it’s been a few weeks since my last blog. A parliamentary trip to Bangladesh, a chest infection, and the February parliamentary recess have prevented me from providing an update on my work in Parliament.

Click here if you’d like to read more about my visit to the Rohingya Refugee camp in Bangladesh.