LAST week I spent nine days in Afghanistan as part of a cross-party delegation of MPs.

The group will be producing a report over the coming months into development in conflict zones using Afghanistan as a case study.

The trip was a closely-guarded secret due to the security situation in Kabul and Helmand province, where most of the UK troops are based.

Security was very tight and we all had to travel in armour-plated vehicles, wear body armour and be trained how to react if our convoy came under attack.

Although we had close protection officers and were well protected, I was still shown how to fire a pistol and a semi automatic rifle "just in case".

The situation in Afghanistan is fiendishly complex.

There are more than 40 tribes and languages in the country, massive poverty, a largely corrupt police force and a massive drugs problem.

More than 90 per cent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan, 50 per cent from Helmand prov-ince, which the British are trying to assert their influence over with a provincial reconstruction team.

It was clear the Taliban was not one group.

As well as the fundamentalists, there are the "ten dollar Taliban", locals who are paid $10 a day to fight.

In order to retain land taken by the Allied forces, development needs to take place.

We managed to see some development projects ourselves and the impact they had already had.

If the community does not see any benefit of democracy, they will not resist the Taliban coming back to the villages.

About £200million of our taxpayers' money is spent on development in Afghanistan, compared to billions on the military effort. I concluded the military solution needs to fit hand in glove with development.

Although we were there to look at development issues, I did have an opportunity to meet soldiers to see what life for them was really like.

After a number of meetings in Kabul, we flew in an RAF Hercules plane to the main UK base in the desert, which is home to over 7,000 people.

We were then flown to the UK command centre by Americans in Black-hawk helicopters.

I met a soldier who was born in Southend and serving in the operations room. I got to see their accommodation: Semi air-conditioned tents because temperatures get up to the mid-40s in the summer.

We spoke of problems with their kit, their boots and quality of the food, and the general conditions.

The main concerns were over insufficient helicopters and the comparison to the US troops, who seemed to be in much better accommodation.

We met a number of key players in the country, including the president Hamid Karzai, leading MPs, key governors, critical ambassadors, the UN, the head of UK forces and a three-star American gen-eral who leads the US military.

He had fought in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and a number of other conflicts - a man of real experience.

It brought home to me the fantastic opportunity MPs have to meet people and find out what is happening on the ground.

It is then our responsibility to use this information wisely to make policy and hold the Government to account.

I had plenty of experiences to take back to the Commons and raise with the Government.

It was one of the most useful weeks I have spent as an MP to inform myself about the issues we debate.

The trip gave me an impression of what we ask our troops to do and the conditions they live in whilst doing the job.

One of the biggest things any MP votes on is sending our troops to war.