It was really good to meet the Defence Procurement Minister Jeremy Quin at BAE on Monday.

Because of Covid restrictions, this was his first visit to the shipyard. Steve Timms, BAE’s Managing Director and I were able to sit down with him to discuss not just the shipyard but also how we can work together to retain skills in the area and to help BAE to support Barrow and the wider community through mechanisms like the Town Deal.

It was also an opportunity to lobby the Minister to consider Barrow as the ideal location for the National Skills Academy for Marine Shipbuilding.

As we explained, this would complement very well the Learning Quarter of the University Campus planned for Barrow, the existing Submarine Academy and the great partnership that already exists between Furness College and BAE. This was also, of course, the week when the Prime Minister announced a delay of one month before we finally move out of lockdown. The fine balance is making sure that the link between infections and hospitalisations has been broken. It looks as though it has, thanks to the vaccination programme, but I would much rather accept a small delay to prove that than face the prospect of the NHS being on the brink of being overwhelmed, and further lockdowns. This month will be spent vaccinating as many people over 18 as possible, and running surge testing in communities like ours - to identify cases and limit transmission. Finally, toward the end of the week I attended a couple of local events in quick succession, both of which reminded me how proud we should be of our community.

The first was meeting with the fantastic team at Spring Mount on Walney, who were partnering with CandoFM to teach young people how to interview, record, film and edit.

Immediately after that, I joined the Great Get Together with the Furness Multicultural Forum at Barrow Park.

This event was a fantastic celebration of the many people who make up Furness.