Immigration is one of the biggest concerns that UK people have.

This country is already one of the world’s most densely populated and there is a mounting sense of unfairness around the immigration system.

Immigration peaked in 2010 and I’m pleased to say it has been falling since. However, we’re not there yet.

So this week we had the Second Reading of the Immigration Bill in the Commons.

As things stand, it is too easy for people to live and work in the UK illegally and take advantage of our public services.

The appeals system is interminable, with almost 70,000 appeals heard every year.

The winners are foreign criminals and immigration lawyers and the British public are left to pick up the tab.

The Immigration Bill will stop immigrants using public services where they are not entitled to do so, reduce the pull factors which encourage people to come to the UK and make it easier to remove those people who should not be here.

We will continue to welcome the brightest and best immigrants, who want to contribute to our economy and society and play by the rules. But the law must be on the side of people who respect it, not those who break it.

I am pleased that, at last, the UK has given the green light to the renewal of nuclear energy, as part of our energy mix.

If we hadn’t done so, we would face the abject failure of so-called alternatives to keep the lights on.

This would mean ongoing reliance on unreliable Middle East fossil fuels or importing electricity generated in France from nuclear plants along the Atlantic coastline.

Taken with my party’s sensible position on hopeless onshore wind turbines, which is one of increasing scepticism, our energy future is looking somewhat brighter.