This week has seen the publication of the long awaited final version of the Sue Gray report into parties in Downing Street. I am not sure there were any surprises in what she concluded, and I have heard nothing that has changed my mind about whether the conduct in Number 10 fell far short of what we all expected. So, to clarify for those who are in any way unclear on this, my letter of no confidence remains in.
The highlight of last week was undoubtedly the visit to Barton Peveril College to talk to the A Level Government and Politics students, who had some brilliant questions, including on "party gate", Roe V Wade and everyday sexism. It was great to see the new building work going on at the college and it continues to go from strength to strength.
In Parliament on Wednesday I was very pleased to be able to host the L'Oreal and UNESCO For Women in Science awards, which celebrates female scientists with a bursary of £15,000. The winners were a truly inspirational group of scientists who will no doubt go on to excel in their future careers. L'Oreal have sponsored the awards for the last 25 years and a number of former fellows have gone on to be Nobel Prize winners. We held a round table earlier in the day for some of the judging panel and fellows, where they were talking about the practical steps that could be taken to tackle some of the barriers to female participation in STEM subjects.
