As is traditional, Parliament was adjourned for 10 days following the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Before rising, however, MPs were given two days to pay their respects, and those of their constituents in the Chamber, before being addressed by the new King in Westminster Hall a few days later.

While, for many, the Queen will be remembered for her sense of duty and dedication, what came out most strongly in the parliamentary tributes was her great sense of fun and how she often used humour to put the people she met at ease.

As someone who hails from Belfast, I highlighted the great contribution she made to peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland, through bravely welcoming Martin McGuinness to London and also her State visit in 2011, both of which brought so much healing.

One of the last public duties the Queen carried out was to appoint the new Prime Minster, Liz Truss, who finally announced a freeze on average energy bills in response to growing fear at the lack of government action over the summer during the Tory leadership campaign.

However, the average bill cap of £2500 is still a further rise of £600 and is double the energy cap from January.

Indeed, it will drive another million people driven into poverty this winter. And, although some support is now being offered to businesses, this will vary and is not guaranteed to last through the winter, making it hard for them to plan and leaving many at risk of closing.

Leisure and hospitality businesses will be particularly hit by the surge in energy prices due to their high usage levels along with a loss of customers who are themselves struggling with the soaring cost-of-living.

However, as we saw in the new Chancellor’s recent budget, Truss’s Government are not interested in the plight of ordinary families and small businesses.

Indeed, the removal of the cap on bankers’ bonuses and removal of the higher rate of Income Tax was the most blatant ‘give to rich and take from poor’ set of measures I have seen since entering Westminster.

The concept of ‘trickle down’ economics, where tax cuts to the wealthy will supposedly lead to money filtering down to everyone else, has been thoroughly discredited.

As I said in my speech, all it will do is funnel more wealth to the City of London and the South-East while taking it away from local economies, killing high streets and turning our town centres into ghost towns.

This impoverishment of areas outside South-East will be aggravated further by the threat to cut Universal Credit for those in low-paid work if they aren’t seen to be intensively and constantly hunting for a better job.

So much for ‘levelling up’, the Tory’s supposed flagship policy.

Kwarteng’s plan is already undermining the economy, rather than growing it, with the pound and stock market both collapsing while he was on his feet!

It is worse than the Thatcher years!

While we are lucky to at least have the Scottish Parliament to help mitigate some of the worst effects, the lack of borrowing powers, or any control over Scotland’s enormous energy resources, limits their room for manoeuvre.

We simply shouldn’t be in a position the structure of our economy and society are dictated by right-wing UK Governments we don’t vote for.

Away from Parliament, I was delighted to visit UK Space-Comm Expo to meet multiple companies and hear about their latest plans for the development of space technology.

It was great to see local representatives from Prestwick Spaceport, including Astro Agency and our launch partner, Astraius, attending and, naturally, I took the opportunity to promote the project at every opportunity given its potential to benefit the whole of Ayrshire through high-quality jobs and added economic activity.