Yvonne Fovargue MP: A crisis created in Downing Street

They have crashed the economy by handing enormous, unfunded tax cuts to those people who earn millions and the very richest companies.

Because of this, working people will pay higher prices and higher mortgage rates for years to come.

This is not some global issue – it happened as soon as the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng stood up in Parliament.

They have damaged the UK's reputation and that leaves us all worse off.

With Labour you will get responsible finances, strong fiscal rules and fair, long-term growth.

Prime Minister Liz Truss’s media appearances last week left us in no doubt that she is not on the side of working people – we are all now paying the price for unfunded tax cuts which benefit only the very wealthiest.

The Prime Minister now needs to choose saving people’s homes over saving face, and reverse this disastrous, kamikaze Budget now.

While the Bank of England’s actions stabilised the markets, the result of this government’s decisions will be higher inflation, higher interest rates and higher borrowing costs for taxpayers – leaving us all worse off.

Mortgages withdrawn. Pension pots decimated. Food and fuel prices climbing even higher. Hardly what I call responsible economic management.

Now they want to claim it is a “global” problem.

But that could not be further from the truth: this is a crisis made in Downing Street.

And all for what? A return to the failed idea of trickledown economics, where you make the rich even richer and hope that somehow some of it trickles down to everyone else.

On a much more positive note, at the invitation of Natural England I attended the declaration of The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve (NNR), England’s newest NNR earlier this week.

The Flashes of Wigan and Leigh NNR will be created by bringing together a cluster of 13 sites including Local Nature Reserves, Pennington Flash in Leigh in the south to Pearsons Flash and Amberswood to the north in the heart of Wigan.

Declaration as a National Nature Reserve is seen as an opportunity to celebrate, protect and enhance this area at the heart of Wigan’s post-industrial coalfields.

Reclamation of these sites has been ongoing since the 1980s with partners working to re-imagine these ex-coalfield sites into nature reserves and spaces for the local community to enjoy.

The NNR designation will further promote this landscape and the wide environmental benefits it provides from the wetlands and woodlands through habitat creation and restoration, support for species recovery, cleaner air and water, and improved access for people.

As a borough we are blessed to have a NNR within easy reach of local communities to enjoy.

If you have not visited then I would recommend that you take the time to do so and enjoy all that is on offer there!