I’ve spent quite some time this week liaising with the steel sector through meetings and roundtables as several companies start to buckle under the pressure of lack of investment and support. The Tories risk letting the UK become the first developed country with no domestic steel sector, which is quite staggering. I’m proud that Labour are standing up for UK steel as I told The BBC, and deeply worried about the potential job losses in the steel sector under the current administration, as I discussed with The Mirror.

 One of the other major challenges we face as a country is how we can use the excellent higher education sector in the North of England as the basis for new companies and good jobs. Forget the Government dolling out a few million pounds to councils fighting each other for it like the Hunger Games – the real way we’ll address the UK’s awful regional inequality is through innovation, skills and better infrastructure.

 The most significant initiative in this area in recent times has been Northern Gritstone, a collaboration between Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield Universities to fund spin-outs and scale them up. I’m hugely supportive of this work and want to see it turbo-charged. On Friday I went back to my old university and Manchester Science Park to hear how things are going and discuss next steps. Alongside my colleague Chi Onwurah MP I met Imperagen, an enzyme engineering company that could transform chemical and industrial manufacturing. It’s such an exciting area and I want this to be a major focus of the next Labour Government.

 One thing I find hugely valuable as Shadow Business Secretary is the existing relationships I’ve got with local businesses who I can always rely upon for an update on what’s really happening in the economy. On Friday I was in Mossley visiting Geotron. Geotron are a very successful environmental drilling company, a significant employer in the town who also support local causes such as Mossley foodbank. We had a good discussion about infrastructure projects, energy prices and transport costs. Thank you to John and Sarah.

 I also delivered major speeches to the CityUK annual dinner (which you can read in full here) and the Fabian Society annual conference, as well as meeting with the Association of British Insurers, renewables firm Orsted and financial services giant Citi.