STATE Opening of Parliament is always an incredible occasion, but the first King’s Speech for more than 70 years was even more special.

Last week, His Majesty set out 21 laws that the Government intend to pass over the next year.

I know from the many emails that I receive from constituents that proposals for tougher sentences and for greater police powers to protect the law-abiding majority will be particularly popular with a lot of people.

The Sentencing Bill will mean that rapists cannot be released early and the most horrific crimes will result in whole life sentences, while the Criminal Justice Bill will empower police to enter buildings to seize stolen goods – and finally makes sure that criminals can be made to appear in the dock to face their victims and the reality of their crimes.

The new Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill will take advantage of some of the new freedoms that the UK now has outside of the European Union to ban the exporting of cattle from Great Britain for fattening and slaughter – enhancing Britain’s record as having some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world.

A whole raft of other important laws were included in the King’s Speech, and I will look forward to helping them to progress in my new role as one of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury.

Last week also saw us mark Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

I had the pleasure of attending Remembrance Assemblies at The Wordsley School and Summerhill School. Both were incredibly well put together by students and staff, and especially encouraging to see so many young people making sure that each generation remembers the sacrifices by those who have gone before us.

On Remembrance Sunday, we had another incredible turnout for the Remembrance Parade in Kingswinford, with thousands braving the weather to come out and support. Once again, so many of our local schools, Scout groups, Guide groups and cadet units took part, and I know this meant a lot to members of Kingswinford Royal British Legion who, as ever, did a fantastic job organising the event.

This week, we have seen the Prime Minister’s efforts to halve inflation pay off as official figures confirm that the PM’s target has been reached two months early, with average wages once again rising much more quickly than prices.

This is good news for families across the country and, assuming that inflation continues to fall over the next few months, it should mean that the Bank of England can start to bring interest rates back down to help local mortgage-payers. There was less good news with the Supreme Court blocking plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda. While this was not the outcome we wanted, the Government has spent months planning for all eventualities.

While there will now need to be some changes made to the scheme before flights can begin to take off early next year, the Supreme Court confirmed that the principle of sending illegal migrants to a safe third country for processing is lawful.

We need to end this illegal migration which destroys lives and costs British taxpayers millions of pounds a year. When people know that if they come here illegally, they won’t get to stay – they will stop coming and we will stop the boats.