Each week at Parliament, a ballot is held to determine which MPs get to choose the subject for debate at the end of each day.

Having missed out several times, I got lucky today and chose to speak about Croydon's bid for status. If this was just a vanity project, an ego boost for the local council, it would not be worth lobbying for but a) I think we are a city in all but name (there are currently 66 cities in the UK and we are larger than all but 9 of them) and therefore deserve the recognition and b) I think it would provide both a psychological lift and a boost to our profile, helping us to recover from the events of last month.

If you want to read what I had to say, you can do so

here.