FIRST and foremost, following the snowfall and storm at the end of last week, I hope readers stayed safe and well.

I’d like to pay tribute to our fantastic emergency services workers, our dedicated Welsh NHS staff, and our council teams, who all worked to keep vital services running in what was a particularly unusual weather event, given the wind and drifting snow.

Also a huge thank you to the volunteer drivers who helped medical workers and others get to hospitals, to staff in local shops who made it in to work to ensure that other people had access to supplies and services, and to the very many of you who helped vulnerable members of our communities through the inclement weather.

There was a great deal of disruption, though thankfully only for a relatively short time, and I was delighted that a group of students from St Cyres School were still able to travel to Parliament as planned on Monday.

The sixth-formers enjoyed a tour, workshop, and a question and answer session when they asked me some challenging questions about my role as an MP!

I hope they enjoyed their day – and would encourage all constituency schools to get in touch to arrange similar visits.

The students also sat in the Public Gallery of the House of Commons for the afternoon session, and saw the Prime Minister give a statement to MPs about the future economic partnership between the UK and EU, and the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

The statement followed a speech she gave last week, which in my opinion failed to clarify anything, and left us with more questions than answers

In the House on Monday I challenged her on the Government’s insistence on carrying on with a hard and destructive Brexit, despite their own analysis demonstrating the damage this will do to our economy.

I asked her: “The Prime Minister has admitted that life will be different, so does she now accept her own Government’s comprehensive analysis, which many of us have been to see in the Treasury?

“It shows that the gains from trade will be offset by the losses and that there will be a hit to our economy in every scenario that involves leaving the single market and customs union - with borrowing going up, austerity continuing and deregulation coming through - and if not can she explain how on earth this is in the national interest?”

She could not give a satisfactory answer.