As you read this, I will probably be dressed up as a Christmas elf in Barrow market at the invitation of the wonderful people at the Barrow and District Disability Association. I can only apologise to any children or animals I inadvertently frighten and want to make a solemn promise that this will be a one-off – or at least will only happen once a year.

I know so many of you counting the hours until Friday when you can shut up shop for a while and enjoy Christmas. I hope you will forgive me for admitting to have the odd twinge of that sentiment myself. Christmas with small children is particularly magical and mine are as excited as any by Santa’s imminent arrival.

But – again like so many of you – there is no slowing down this week. Yesterday we were voting until late into the evening on the Brexit process. I remain determined that taking back control means we need a say on the kind of future we want once we have left the European Union. At the very least this requires that parliament votes on the terms of any exit deal before it is finalised. A bad deal could do terrible damage to the amount of money available for investing in our schools and hospitals and could also harm local jobs and living standards. Many Brexit promises like the extra £350m per week for the NHS have already evaporated so the government must not be allowed to escape scrutiny at this critical period.

Then tomorrow I am chairing two meetings in Furness on issues similarly important to our future. In Ulverston I am bringing people together for another meeting of our Cumbria Better Connected campaign to lobby for improvements to the dire state of our local rail services. The lack of recognition from the government so far about the scale of the problem has been deeply disappointing when we continue to suffer regular horror stories of delayed and cancelled trains. But we will keep pushing. The rail minister has at least now agreed to meet me and neighbouring MPs Tim Farron and Trudy Harrison to discuss the crisis. Minister Paul Maynard, a Blackpool MP, told me he does appreciate the inadequacy of our locomotives and train carriages after regularly seeing them pull out of Preston station where he changes for home. It is vital that this meeting happens soon.

Then in Barrow I will be bringing together businesses and local leaders to discuss how we can make sure that the investment coming into the area raises up our whole area by helping tackle the terrible ingrained deprivation in pockets of Furness. I will keep you updated on this work by the Furness Economic Development Forum which I helped establish to ensure we can come together as a community to make the most of the new opportunities in our area.

Finally, let me say a word of thanks to those in many professions who will be continuing to work right through the break to keep us safe – both home and abroad – to keep us healthy and to help the most vulnerable. We are grateful for what you do all year round, but particularly at Christmas.