Commons
Westminster Hall
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Moles: Histological Testing
It is an honour to serve under your chairpersonship, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Members for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) and for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) on securing this debate. I wish the hon. Member for South Norfolk all the best in his treatment. I have to say, it was hugely …
I totally agree with those comments.
I will finish by paying tribute to one of my friends from vet school, Polly Birch. She was diagnosed with a melanoma in 2016 and had it removed, but in 2017, a few months after giving birth to her baby girl, Ada, she discovered it was metastatic, and she passed …
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
Support for Disabled Veterans
On the Mental Health Bill Committee, we spoke repeatedly about veterans experiencing mental ill health, often linked to trauma from their service. They often end up in a system that does not recognise their trauma and what they have been through. Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be a good ide…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
3 contributions
Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper) for securing this really important debate.
We have a lot of medical professionals in the room. It might surprise colleagues that, although I am a rudimentary vet, we treat fatty liver…
Fantastic. Hopefully it will improve people’s mental health—and if they leave halfway through, it will probably improve their physical health, too. That is a fantastic initiative.
Other Members have talked about the soaring rate of liver deaths, which has shot up in the last 20 years. The hon. Memb…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Carer’s Allowance
5. How many people are in receipt of carer’s allowance.
We all know that carers give everything to care for their loved ones—physically, emotionally and financially. The Government received the carer’s allowance report three months ago, and under Lib Dem pressure have agreed to publish it by the end of the year. Do we know how many carers will be unfairl…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
2 contributions
SEND Provision
5. What steps her Department is taking to help improve the SEND system.
In 2024, fewer than half of education, health and care plans were issued within the 20-week limit. Five months is a huge chunk of a child’s life, and parents of Winchester tell me every single week about how hard they have to fight to get the support that their child needs and is entitled to. What s…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 October 2025
Ukraine
Earlier this year, I joined a brilliant organisation called Mighty Convoy to drive some refurbished ambulances full of medical supplies to Ukraine. While we were there, we bumped into another organisation called FIRE AID that takes refurbished fire engines to Ukraine from the UK. That equipment is v…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 October 2025
Healthcare: Bolton
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bolton North East (Kirith Entwistle) on securing this important debate. I also congratulate her and the hon. Member for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi) on being such powerful advocates for health i…
Commons
Debate
14 October 2025
3 contributions
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
I begin by thanking colleagues across the House who have worked so constructively on this long-awaited Bill. There has been a shared recognition that the current mental health system is failing too many people and that reform is urgently needed. I thank the Minister for engaging with us so construct…
That is a prescient point. At the moment, there is no responsibility to ensure that children in particular, and other carers too, are identified. Even if they are put in advance choice documents, if the person making those decisions does not identify them, that will not come about. We would have to …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
2 contributions
Reducing Energy Bills
16. What steps he is taking to reduce energy bills.
I recently visited St Bartholomew’s church in Hyde, which has served the residents of Winchester for over 915 years, as part of its Give to Go Green day, which raised £2,400 to support its efforts to decarbonise the church and reduce energy bills. Will the Minister join me in congratulating the cong…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
16 September 2025
Topical Questions
Under current law, most instances of the sexual abuse of animals are not offences. Not only are those acts despicable in themselves, but given the proven link between animal abuse and child abuse, does the Minister agree that this dangerous gap is a missed opportunity to identify abusers before they…
Commons
Debate
11 September 2025
Male Chick Culling
I thank the hon. Member for giving way—she is passionate about animal welfare. She mentions in-ovo technology identifying the sex of chicks. Similar technology has worked well in the dairy industry, where semen can be sexed before a cow is artificially inseminated, to ensure we have female cows rath…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
Suicide Prevention
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I always say that real doctors treat more than one species.
I thank the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing the debate and speaking so emotively, as so many hon. Members have today. I know from personal experience of tal…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
The situation in Gaza is absolutely appalling, with schools and hospitals bombed, people killed at aid stations, children shot by snipers and people deliberately starved to death. Everyone is trying to understand what further war crimes will have to be committed before the Government will sanction N…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 September 2025
Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths
It is a honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) for securing this important debate, but also for very bravely and emotively discussing his personal experience.
Those of us in this Chamber who have had relatives suffering from…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 September 2025
Pony and Trap Racing: Regulation
My experience of treating horses that are taking part in these races, and that of all other equine vets, is that there is very little regard for animal welfare in these situations. Not only are they often unshod, they are often underdeveloped and immature and carrying large, often multiple, men in a…
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Topical Questions
Many carers have told me how much they rely on respite care to protect their own physical and mental health so that they can continue to care for their loved ones day in, day out. The wonderful Chesil Lodge day centre in Winchester has recently been threatened with closure, and I have been fighting …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Middle East
Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are being deliberately starved to death; aid convoys are coming under fire; children are being shot by soldiers; and schools and hospitals are being bombed. Can the Foreign Secretary outline what further war crimes would need to take place before the UK Govern…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Climate Change Committee Report
Will the Minister join me in congratulating the fantastic Lib Dem-run Winchester city council on being rated the greenest council in the UK by Climate Action UK? That is a lot of work by politicians, and it shows what politicians who dearly believe in this issue can achieve if they crack on and deal…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
2 contributions
SEND Provision: South-east England
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward, and I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) for securing this hugely important debate. Like many other Members here, SEND is probably the subject that I get the most emails about, and it is very closely related …
I completely agree. The issue that everyone has brought up today is that the system is adversarial right from the point that parents try to get a diagnosis in the first place to show that their child needs support. When they finally do, they then have to fight tooth and nail—including in time-wastin…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Violence against Women: Criminal Justice System
8. What steps she is taking to support victims of violence against women through the criminal justice system.
A woman from Winchester wrote to me saying:
“It feels as though every department that should have protected us has instead failed us”.
After years of high-risk domestic abuse, she went through a CID investigation to prove that she needed financial separation, but the police missed the Crown Prosec…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 July 2025
Alcohol and Cancer
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I very much appreciate the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Cat Smith) securing this important debate.
We vets often treat liver disease and cancers, but in animals they are rarely caused by excess intake of alcohol. On the few occasi…
Commons
Debate
4 July 2025
Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill
As someone who grew up on a sheep farm, a vet who has treated injuries caused by dogs that are out of control, and someone who continues to work with farmers quite closely in the Meon valley, I cannot emphasise enough how necessary this legislation is. The problem is devastating for animals, but als…
Commons
Debate
4 July 2025
12 contributions
Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.
I am delighted to present this Bill for its Third Reading. I begin by stating how grateful I am to all the Members from across the House who have engaged with this Bill, especially during the Public Bill Committee. It became quite clear very …
There are so many fantastic organisations like Canine Partners. Another one is the Cinnamon Trust. If a person ends up going into hospital for an extended period of time, the Cinnamon Trust will take care of their pet for them and give it back to them when they are discharged. That takes away so muc…
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
Infant Feeding
To reiterate the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) and the Minister about all children needing to have a healthy start, we cannot emphasise enough how important gestation and the first six months of life are. The factors that affect gestation and the first…
Commons
Oral Questions
Science, Innovation and Technology
25 June 2025
Science and Innovation Funding
Over the past 10 years, many tech start-ups have left the UK and gone to silicon valley, which costs the UK a huge amount in jobs and tax revenue. What are the Government doing to ensure that start-ups currently at seed stage stay in the UK and grow here, so that we avoid the UK becoming an intellec…