My day on Friday was dominated by my attendance at the 100 Group Conference that was held at Kingsford Community School. This was a meeting of Head Teachers of schools from around the country, with the theme of “The Social Mobility Imperative”. The conference was well attended and thought-provoking, and you can read more about it in my Newham Recorder column for this week. I began my day here, introducing the attendees to the borough in which I live and the constituency that I represent.

I also returned later in the day to take part in a Question Time panel, where I and a group of experts answered questions on social mobility that were posed by students from the various schools that were in attendance. There were some really very interesting questions, and I hope that my answers and those of my fellow panellists helped to further the important discussion currently underway on how we can make Britain more socially mobile.

In between these stints at the conference I met with two people. The Rev. Chris Beales is the head of a charity called Afghan Action. They work in England to promote an understanding of the difficulties faced by the Afghan people, and in Afghanistan to promote the wellbeing of those people through job creation – in carpet weaving – and social projects.

I then met with Dr Sinha, a local GP whom I am sure many of my constituents will know as their own family doctor. He updated me on the current state of his surgery, and on the valuable community work that he is engaged in.

Drawing near to the end of my day I visited the Tuberculosis Centre at the Newham Chest Clinic on Shrewsbury Road. I was met by the friendly and hardworking staff there, who briefed me on the treatment of TB in the borough. Please remember that if you have a lingering cough for more than three weeks, especially if it is accompanied by other symptoms, you should get yourself tested. TB is nearly always curable with the right medical treatment.

To close the day, I headed to the East Ham Town Hall for an advice surgery with constituents.