AS the curtain prepares to come down on 2025, it might be worth reflecting on some of the milestones in what has been a busy, productive and memorable 12 months.
The list is too long to revive them all in this column, but front and centre is how we best put to work the £200m of government investment heading for Team Barrow.
Pushing hard for this funding to be confirmed in Westminster was among my first tasks after becoming your MP.
This huge amount of money is coming down the track because of the critical role Barrow plays in the nation’s defence capabilities.
Some people have said there’s plenty of talk but no tangible signs of improvement.
That’s a situation well understood by those who are driving the programme.
The coming year will see things begin to move through the gears – everyone involved in Team Barrow knows that pace needs to be injected.
The construction of new houses – plus the regeneration of Barrow’s current housing stock – needs to happen on a scale not seen for many years.
The next three years will see construction really taking off and we will need hundreds of workers to meet the demand.
Another welcoming announcement was the arrival of £20m Trailblazer Fund for projects to give a boost to Barrow’s Central ward.
There has been loads of interest in this Pride in Place programme and we are grateful to the Signal Film and Media personnel who worked with my team to host a special evening at Cooke’s Studios in Abbey Road, Barrow, where I was able to sketch out how this exciting initiative might develop and there will be more like this in the coming months.
We also welcomed the arrival of the £5m social impact fund for local charities along with money to completely rebuild Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School.
In midsummer we marked Dave Day when over 20,000 motorcyclists roared into town as a tribute to Barrow-born TV chef and Hairy Biker Dave Myers who died in 2024.
A special moment arrived on September 22 when a beaming King Charles shook hands with members of a cheering crowd on the square at the rear of Barrow town hall when he came to the yard.
The monarch was in town to officially bestow royal port status to the shipyard and docks, while also reading the Commissioning Warrant to mark nuclear submarine HMS Agamemnon entering operational service.
Parents, teachers and children at Waberthwaite School and Lindal and Marton Primary School received a boost in the form of free school breakfast clubs – and Labour has plans to extend this further in the months ahead.
Just days ago, good news was announced for family farms when the government amended the proposal on Agricultural and Business Property Relief and raised the threshold from £1m to £2.5m from April 2026.
This is a natural part of policy forming with bills being debated three times in the House of Commons and also the House of Lords, where amendments are made before the final third reading when the bill becomes law.
I worked with many other rural MPs over the past year as part of the Labour Rural Research Group to secure these changes alongside the NFU, and I’ll keep working with our farmers to support a secure future for British agriculture.
I must send my thanks to all those who attended the packed public meeting inside Hawcoat Park Sports Club in October and joined me in speaking against plans to permanently downgrade Level Three ICU care at Furness General Hospital.
I’m glad to have combined forces with the Mail in a joint campaign to urge health bosses think again.
That’s one battle we are taking into 2026.
There will be others waiting for us, but there’s also tremendous cause for optimism.
Let me close by wishing you all a happy new year.