EARLIER this month I met with senior representatives from HSBC, including the bank’s CEO for Scotland, to discuss SME (small-to-medium) business investment in Ochil & South Perthshire.

HSBC have an annual SME business investment fund which last year was worth £500m for Scotland. However, the fund has been growing in recent years and so I met with the CEO to discuss greater investment opportunities for Ochil & South Perthshire.

There are hundreds of fantastic SME’s across Ochil and South Perthshire who are just crying out for investment in order to expand and develop their businesses. Given HSBC have an annual fund available for investing in SME’s I will do everything in my power to ensure businesses in Clackmannanshire have access to this fund and are considered for investment opportunities.

In the past few weeks I have also been continuing to oppose the RBS closures across our constituency. Although the trend is for more online banking, RBS needs to support its customers and keep branches open in constituencies like ours.

It’s not often I address international issues in these pages, preferring instead to focus upon the issues facing Clackmannanshire, but I want to briefly address the situation with Russia just now. I wish to commend the prime minister for her response and strong stance she has taken with Russia since the attack in Salisbury.

We cannot stand aside when a foreign state commit an attack on our soil and Theresa May should be commended for the way she has rallied an international coalition of condemnation of [President] Putin’s actions. This is all the more impressive in the context of Brexit, which caused many to warn the United Kingdom would no longer be able to command the support of our European allies. This shows we can remain optimistic for the future of the United Kingdom post-Brexit.

As I write this article, the prime minister is set to meet with the cabinet to discuss our reaction to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Although I am very cautious about committing the UK to any military action after Iraq, I think it is important that if we draw a red line on chemical weapons, we enforce it.

In the last month we have seen Scotland's economic growth lagging behind the rest of the United Kingdom, and with business confidence in Scotland at an all-time low, it is clear there is more to this than just Brexit, as it is effecting Scotland far more than anywhere else in the UK. Evidently, the prospect of a second referendum hanging over Scotland has done much to hold Scotland back in the last few years, and so I was pleased to hear a senior SNP MP earlier this month, finally heeding the Scottish Conservative’s calls to get on with the day job and walk away from a second independence referendum.

When we quote figures showing Scotland growing slower and being less confident than other parts of the country, it masks some of the real success stories we have across Scotland and here in Clackmannanshire. However, if we are underperforming, we need to acknowledge and understand why. The first step in tackling a problem is to recognise we have one – I believe my job as MP is to understand these problems and try and find ways to tackle them.

As always, if you have any issues/concerns please contact me at my office on 38 Primrose Street, Alloa or by email –luke.grahamoffice@parliament.uk