I recently had a fantastic day out at the Usk Show. Events like these are a great way to meet so many of you while also looking around the fantastic stands showcasing our brilliant local businesses, community groups and farmers’ organisations.

Huge congratulations to everyone involved, it was a brilliant day despite the much needed rain!

It was brilliant to see Monmouthshire County Council’s Waste and Reuse stand in action – they save old items from landfill, recycle them, and then sell them on to raise money to plant more trees. A win–win for people and the planet!

At the show, I met with the Farmers’ Union of Wales and NFU to discuss several key issues, including the Sustainable Farming Scheme, inheritance tax, bluetongue, and the impact of the extremely dry weather we’ve had in recent months.

Earlier in the week I met Louise from the South Wales Menopause Community. She’s doing incredible work to support women and raise awareness of the challenges they face.

Around 900,000 women across the UK leave work early due to menopausal symptoms. That’s an enormous loss of talent and experience – and it’s often totally avoidable with the right support in place.

As your MP, I’ll do everything I can to raise awareness and work with both the UK and Welsh Governments to increase support for women going through the menopause.

During this meeting, I also had a go at flipping Welshcakes at Castell Coffi – the home of Millie’s Welshcakes!

I met Ian, who runs this fantastic coffee shop with his family in Caldicot. The welshcakes - as many of you know - are incredible, I highly recommend a visit.

Over in Westminster, I was proud to recently vote for the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.

This includes day-one rights to parental, maternity and bereavement leave, an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts, and stronger protections for those off sick – including a stronger, more reliable statutory sick pay system.

These are vital changes that will benefit us all here in Monmouthshire and across the UK. And it shows the clear difference a Labour Government makes – standing up for working families.

That’s why it was so disappointing to see every single Reform and Conservative MP vote against these proposals. This draws a clear line between a Labour Party focused on improving lives and opposition parties more interested in ideology and point-scoring.

As always, if you ever need my support now or in the future, please don't hesitate to get in touch.