Our APPG on birth trauma report in 2024 was the first in Parliament on that subject. We heard from more than 1,300 women and families. The report was titled, “Listen to Mums”. I am glad that an independent maternity commissioner will finally be implemented, after our years of calls for one. Bill Kir…
CommonsOral QuestionsHousing, Communities and Local Government15 June 2026
T8. Whitstable’s latest drought was a few weeks ago during a heatwave, leaving many residents and local businesses high and dry. South East Water tells me and my neighbours that it cannot guarantee meeting current demand, so it will be unable to guarantee meeting additional demand from new homes. Ha…
CommonsPrime Minister's QuestionsPrime Minister3 June 2026
Q5. This week, Tom Kerridge and UKHospitality launched their “VAT’s the Problem” campaign, and yesterday my neighbour the right hon. Member for Herne Bay and Sandwich (Sir Roger Gale) and I hosted industry bodies, chefs Matt Tebbutt and Thomasina Myers and hospitality leaders from Manchester, Liverp…
CommonsWestminster Hall14 April 202610 contributions
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart) for securing this debate. We are so used to having small time limits for these debates that I am afraid I have not prepared anything like as much as I would want to say.
On 16 April …
Absolutely. Of course, that is the hon. Member’s area of expertise. I know many health professionals who are incredibly frustrated at this simple twisting of facts, which should not be done at all in the NHS. I thank her for pointing that out.
With a few admirable exceptions, many Members of Parlia…
It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. First, I should acknowledge that, having been steeped in this issue for many years, I know James Esses, the therapist who organised this petition. He, the formidable Keira Bell and the Bayswater Support Group have managed to halt thi…
I thank the Secretary of State and his team for their engagement with this awful situation in Canterbury. As he can imagine, all in my constituency have been devastated by the tragic death of Juliette Kenny and another student from this cruel disease, and I thank my constituency neighbour, the hon. …
CommonsOral QuestionsEducation2 March 20262 contributions
5. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in Kent.
I recently hosted a constituency SEND roundtable with education leaders and officials from the Department, where teachers stressed yet again that years of underfunding and diminished support services had left schools on their knees, often unable to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children. Unf…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins) for securing this debate.
Almost a decade since we held that fateful referendum, let us look back and count the many and varied so-called “Brexit benefits” that som…
CommonsOral QuestionsEducation19 January 20262 contributions
12. What recent progress she has made on publishing guidance for gender-questioning children in schools.
The Secretary of State told the House that the guidance for schools would be published by the end of 2025, yet here we still are without the guidance anywhere to be seen. There is immense pressure on schools, colleges, children’s homes and other settings to socially transition children, often irresp…
CommonsOral Questions13 January 20262 contributions
3. What discussions he has had with King’s College London on the compliance of the PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial with the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services’ peer-reviewed report found that harms from paediatric medical transition are significant, long term and too often ignored and inadequately tracked, as testified by Keira Bell, who is here in Parliament today. What is the Government’s rationa…
CommonsOral QuestionsWork and Pensions8 December 20252 contributions
8. What steps his Department is taking to help prevent job seekers and welfare claimants being subject to commercial sexual exploitation.
Commercial sexual exploitation is the exchange of money, goods or services in return for sex acts. It is a form of violence against women. Inquiries by the all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation have revealed that it is now taking place on an industrial scale. With the growt…
Will the hon. Lady make it clear again for anyone watching this debate that what she is saying is that those biological males—fully intact biological males—housed on the women’s estate are overwhelmingly convicted of violent sexual offences?
CommonsOral QuestionsChurch Commissioners16 October 20252 contributions
7. What steps the Church of England is taking to help support the appointment process for the next Archbishop of Canterbury.
As my hon. Friend will know, it has been a really difficult year for the Church, and for Canterbury cathedral in particular, with the death of our beloved Dean Emeritus Robert Willis, the horrible circumstances surrounding the resignation of Archbishop Justin, and the current controversy about an ar…
South East Water’s Broad Oak reservoir in Canterbury, which will also serve your constituency, Mr Deputy Speaker, is not due to open until 2033. Will my beleaguered residents and businesses in Canterbury and parts of Whitstable have to put up with the droughts and the leaks—in a heatwave, which has …
CommonsOral QuestionsTreasury20 May 20252 contributions
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.
Westminster is once again buzzing with the latest U-turns, speculation and briefings over the Chancellor’s policies on the winter fuel allowance and the two-child benefit cap. There is less of a buzz for the visitors to Canterbury food bank, however, which last month distributed enough food to make …