The New Year is always a good time to take stock of things, and so I have been taking stock of what I have achieved as Secretary of State for Business and Trade since we won the historic victory at the General Election. It has been an incredibly busy and productive six months.

In our first 100 days, the new Government introduced the Employment Rights Bill, the biggest upgrade in worker’s rights in a generation. In October I was proud to welcome big businesses to a record breaking International Investment Summit, which raised £63 billion in investment in to the UK economy and launched Labour’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper, Invest 2035, that sets out our 10 year plan for the economy.

In recognition that small businesses drive our economy locally and nationally, we have taken action to ensure that small businesses are protected against late payment and unlocked funding for disabled entrepreneurs. I also launched the Business Growth Service to ensure small businesses can get the right Government support to help them grow.

Much of the work of the past six months has been tackling the long-standing challenges left by the last government. This includes negotiating a better deal with Tata Steel and a deal with Navantia to save Harland and Wolff’s shipyards, developing a UK wide Steel strategy, and launching a further Horizon compensation scheme, which has already paid out £0.5 billion to ensure all postmasters that suffered due to this scandal get compensation.

Trade talks have also been restarted with South Korea, Switzerland and the Gulf Cooperation Council and in December the UK exceeded into the CPTPP trading bloc which will bring an extra £2bn annually into the UK economy in the long term.

We have achieved so much in the last six months, and I am excited for what can be achieved in 2025 starting on Thursday, when I’ll be able to announce some good news and new investment in the manufacturing sector.