I recently visited Simpsons Wine Estate in Barham in my new role as Minister for Tourism.

The visit was an opportunity to see how Kent’s booming food and drink sector can attract more visitors to the county and increase tourism revenue for local businesses.

It was fantastic to attend the official opening of Foodie’s Emporium in Headcorn on 20 September.

I love buying local produce and Foodie’s is full of that – local cheeses, locally made bread, local wine – giving locals and visitors to Headcorn plenty of reasons to shop there.

The constituency and the country voted to Leave and I have been supporting the Prime Minister to get on with the job of taking us out of the EU. The negotiations have been difficult – which we always knew they were going to be.

Recovering from the financial crash was never going to be easy, and the latest growth forecasts suggest there’s a way to go. But there was good news for the economy in last week’s budget. We have the lowest unemployment since the 1970s and rising wages for the lowest paid.

I was delighted to attend the official re-opening of The Harrow pub in Stockbury village a few nights ago. It was a fantastic event to be part of as the pub's story is heart-warming for the local community.

The budget started with good news. The UK's economy is growing faster than the USA, France and Japan, millions more people are in work and wages are rising.

With the Budget coming on Wednesday 8 March, a number of constituents wrote to me about beer duty and business rates for pubs.

A 32 tonne, 40ft long lorry packed with business experts rolled into the carpark at Maidstone Studios on Tuesday.

I know a lot of local businesspeople are worried about the business rate revaluation, and some are seeing big increases.

Helping people who’ve been handed a raw deal in life is one of the reasons I wanted to be an MP, so I’m delighted to be holding a jobs fair with the Job Centre to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds find work.