Parliament is now adjourned for Summer Recess.

At last week’s Summer Adjournment Debate I took the opportunity to raise with the Government issues that matter to the people of Glasgow South West including delivering the promised shipbuilding contracts to the Clyde; the continuing battle of the 1950s WASPI women who paid in but have not been paid out; and seeking an apology from the Government to the people of Glasgow for closing half the jobcentres two years ago, which we have now found out they are likely going to reopen.

I also took the opportunity to congratulate the constituency organisations that have stepped up to assist the most vulnerable during the COVID pandemic. I have been particularly pleased, as a trustee of Feeding Britain, to secure £50,000 from that organisation for short-term and long-term food projects. Two of which were the Ridgeway Dairy and Drumoyne Community Council free packed lunch service for the people of Drumoyne.
I expressed my heartfelt condolences to all those who have lost loved ones due to COVID. I have been particularly saddened to see the families of some of my regular constituency correspondents get in touch with the office to say that they had lost them.

Over recent months we have also heartbreakingly lost a number of young people who have tragically taken their own lives in Glasgow South West. That has been particularly hard our communities and we are all grieving their loss. I want to pay thanks to TURF Youth Project, which has organised social-distanced meetings to communicate with young people and their families, and which is now moving on to an online survey. We need to make sure that young people have opportunities, not just job opportunities but creative opportunities. We must make sure that they have the necessary support, the club infrastructure and all those things so that they have a creative outlet to express themselves.

Finally, I took the opportunity to pay a particular personal tribute to the greatest constituency office staff across the four nations of the UK, which is, of course, that of Glasgow South West. Thank you to my great team Dominique Ucbas, Scott McFarlane, Tony McCue, Keith Gibb and Roza Salih for their continued tireless efforts to get positive outcomes for local constituents.