I HAD the pleasure of joining our Prime Minister in Paris earlier this week for the One Planet summit, organised by French President Emmanuel Macron to mark two years since the signing of the Paris Agreement.

The summit was an opportunity for world leaders, with one notable exception, to come together and look at how we can take tangible and collective action.

The slogan for the summit was: “Make our planet great again”, which some may interpret as a subtle dig at the only major world leader to not be invited, but it was also a call to arms for urgent action and an opportunity to demonstrate the best of human achievements, with huge investments in cutting-edge technology, and co-operation between almost all nations big and small.

I am so glad that our Prime Minister has shown such engagement with the issue, and am proud that the UK will continue to play a leading role in shaping our planet for the future.

It is important for world leaders to continue to meet regularly to discuss this issue and make progress, which is why – in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I met at the summit – we will be back.

It was another busy local day last Friday, where I had the pleasure of visiting Marlborough St Mary’s School, which opened in September.

The school was a hive of activity, with the Christmas fair being set up, and I enjoyed a Q&A with pupils from the school council.

I also met Headteacher Mrs Schwodler to discuss traffic and parking issues which the school have been experiencing, and I agreed to ask Wiltshire Council to take urgent action to address this.

I also attended a roundtable session with Business West and a range of small local businesses. The discussions centred on Brexit concerns, particularly the question of trade from outside the single market and customs union, and EU workers.

I was able to offer reassurances that the Government is very aware of the concerns that businesses have been raising, and are working hard to secure a trade deal that will seek as little interruption to trade with the EU as possible, whilst also developing new trading relationships across the globe.

I was also glad to see the announcement this week that the process for EU citizens to register online to stay in the UK after Brexit will be streamlined from 85 pages to just eight questions, which should take no more than a couple of minutes, giving EU citizens and businesses the security they need.