On Friday last week I was at Penny Bridge School, talking to the students there about what an MP does, and why getting involved in politics and local issues matters. As ever during these visits there were funny, challenging and unexpected questions, and their engagement is an absolute credit to Mr Carrick and the team there.

People often think of what MPs do as being centred around the chamber of the House of Commons. Many think of the packed chamber during Prime Minister’s Questions and assume that’s where we spend our time. But actually, the job is far more varied than that - we spend most of our time listening and learning, whether in Westminster, in Barrow and Furness, or elsewhere.

Most of Monday was spent preparing a speech for the Commons with the aim of securing amendments to a Bill passing through Parliament, and meeting with the Business Minister to lay the groundwork. Tuesday was then spent in that debate, making the case on the floor of the House. Working with colleagues from my own party, Labour, and the SNP, I led the charge to tighten up Companies House - making it harder for criminal gangs, fraudsters and kleptocrats to exploit our corporate structures for their own ends. Because of that push, the Government is taking action and we’ve opened the door for the House of Lords to go even further when they look at the Bill in a few weeks.

Very early on Wednesday morning I left London to board a coach through the Eurotunnel with the Home Affairs Select Committee. As part of our ongoing enquiry into channel crossings and migration we spent a packed two days meeting local politicians and civil servants from the Calais region, seeing the police and military in action at the coast, and visiting the Eurotunnel to understand their efforts to secure the border. We also met with humanitarian charities and some migrants themselves.

The conditions in the camps (it was -3 when we were there) were miserable. But everywhere you turn, it’s someone else’s problem. The police turn to the army for solutions, them to the local leaders, local leaders to regional leaders, and then, somewhere up the chain, the President himself.

In 2015, some 80,000 people tried to enter the UK through the Eurotunnel. Thanks to very fancy technology and some old fashioned fencing, that number is now practically zero. As it is on the railways and in planes. But the desire hasn’t gone away - in solving one problem we’ve created the small boats one. When the PM and President Macron meet shortly, pragmatism will be essential to stop those deadly journeys once and for all.

My week ended back in Furness - visiting schools and local businesses, discussing plans for green hydrogen in Barrow, and broadband roll-out in High Furness, and holding a street surgery somewhere in the middle of all that before a night out with my fantastic team.