Last weekend was Small Business Saturday, an annual campaign which celebrates small business success and encourages all of us to shop local and support small businesses within our communities.

With Montgomeryshire being blessed with so many vibrant and diverse small and independent businesses, I visited many across the breadth of the constituency over the course of last weekend.

Given the extremely challenging year 2020 has been for us all and particularly for many businesses, this year more than any other it is vital that we support and value the businesses who we rely on and do so much for our communities. Let’s all do our bit and ‘shop local’ this Christmas.

I am sure many of you are following the developments regarding the EU negotiations with keen interest. It may therefore be courageous to write a column which will be a week behind when published.

However, at the time of writing the UK and EU negotiators are at the last hurdles towards securing a comprehensive trade agreement that will set out our future relationship with Europe.

There are still differences between both sides, especially around the area of fishing and state aid rules. We have been very clear about we want out of our negotiations with Europe.

Recently I visited British Wool, where the largest grading depot in the UK is based in Newtown.

Visiting there and speaking with them about the importance of promoting our world class natural product has made me more determined than ever to secure a vibrant future for our agriculture sector in Montgomeryshire.

Of course, while it seems a lot of the talk coming out at the moment is playing to the gallery, I am confident that a deal is close. I look forward to being in Parliament before we break up for Christmas to read the detail of any deal that is made and voting in the House of Commons on it, so that we can finally end the divisions and challenges that we have faced since 2016 and move forward as an independent trading nation - while still maintaining good relations with our European friends and partners.

Another momentous story was the news of an increase in our defence spending.

The UK Government announced an extra £16.5billion in the Defence budget over the next four years, which was a key manifesto commitment of the Conservatives.

This increase of spending means we will be the largest defence spender in Europe and the second largest in NATO. This commitment will allow the Government to invest in cutting edge technology, especially within the area of cyber security, and ensuring any weaknesses that have existed in our arsenal are rapidly addressed.

The UK even aims to set up the excitingly named ‘Space Command’ with capabilities to launch our first rocket in 2022. A large focus of this spending is to contribute massively to research in the fields of cyber and space, bolstering the UK’s attractiveness to the Research and Development field.

Finally, after what has proved to be a very challenging year for many of us, I would like to wish you, your family and friends the very best for Christmas and the New Year.