Ayoub Khan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  This Government’s Bill is not just flawed, but morally indefensible. From the outset, we need to be honest about what this Bill represents. It is not a reform; it is a calculated assault on some of the most marginalised people in our society—people with disabilities, people with complex mental health conditions and people already struggling under the weight of austerity and neglect. This Bill continues a pattern we have seen too many times, with cuts dressed up as reform and cruelty wrapped in the language of efficiency. The Department’s own assessment confirms the truth: 150,000 people will be pushed into poverty, approximately 20,000 of them children, if the Bill passes. That is not a side effect but the outcome, and the Government know it. This Bill targets those with fluctuating, invisible or mental health conditions—the very people who already face systemic injustice. It imposes narrow functional descriptors that do not reflect the real-world barriers people face. It punishes people not for being unwilling to work, but for not fitting neatly into bureaucratic tick boxes. Worse still, there has been no meaningful consultation with disabled people or carers, and no engagement with those who live this reality every single day. The Government are making policy about disabled people without disabled people. That is not just neglect; it is offensive. The evidence is clear: the Government are looking to make savings by depriving thousands of their means to live while telling them that the planned changes will empower them. According to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one in five people in receipt of PIP are already in paid employment and working to the limits that their condition allows. Of those, 60% will lose their PIP. These people are already in work. What more do the Government want? Why are they punishing them? In my constituency of Birmingham Perry Barr, 9,000 people rely on this vital payment, but nearly 4,000 are set to lose out entirely, including 630 people currently in work. What do the Government say to my constituents who will lose the income required to live with their condition? What do they say to the millions of families who will have to tighten their purse strings so they can pay for the basic needs of loved ones?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories · Hansard source

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  Dr al-Najjar along with nine of his 10 children were murdered when an Israeli bomb hit their home. All this happened while his wife, another doctor, served at Nasser hospital. We all know, and we have all seen, the many thousands of men, women and children lined up in a cage for food shot as if it was some sort of hunting game. We know also that former President Biden’s spokesman, Mr Miller, said to Sky during an interview that he had no doubt there were war crimes but that he did not say so, even though he was aware of it, when Biden was in power. Does the Minister fear that he finds himself in the same position, and if he does not, why does he not do what the thousands encircling this Parliament have asked to be done and stop the arms to Israel?

• 15 May 2025 · World Asthma Day · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to speak under your chairship, Dr Huq. I am deeply grateful to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this debate, which is crucial—not only for my constituents of Birmingham Perry Barr and the city of Birmingham, but nationally and internationally. Last week, we marked World Asthma Day—a moment of reflection that should fill us with not only resolve but deep discomfort. Asthma is one of the most common health conditions in the UK, as the hon. Member for Strangford mentioned, affecting over 7 million people, yet all too often it is also one of the most fatally overlooked. Every eight hours, someone in this country dies from an asthma attack. In 90% of those cases, their death means a life cut short, a family devastated and a future lost due to what should have been a manageable condition. Such people are dying not because we lack treatments but because our holistic healthcare system is failing them. This crisis is particularly felt by my constituents in Birmingham Perry Barr. Ours is a proud industrial city, but that legacy comes at a cost. Poor air quality continues to fuel respiratory illnesses, and too many of my constituents are left battling the consequences. I received a deeply moving letter from a constituent who has lived with asthma for years. Despite managing her condition to the best of her ability, she suffers asthma attacks constantly, leaving her in constant agony. Unfortunately, her words echo the experiences of many up and down the country. Let us be clear: asthma may be common, but it is no less deadly for that, and no less deserving of urgent, focused attention. I commend the tireless work of people such as Kim Douglas, who is a constituent of mine, after the tragic loss of her three-year-old son George to undiagnosed and untreated asthma. She founded the George Coller Memorial Fund in his memory. That foundation is now calling for two vital reforms that could save lives and ease the burden on our health system. First, it is calling for inhalers to be made free of charge for all patients; 57% of those who end up in emergency care for asthma have skipped their medication because they could not afford the prescription, and almost half missed appointments out of fear that they would not be able to pay for the medication afterwards. In one of the richest countries in the world, that is simply indefensible. A child’s ability to breathe should never depend on their parents’ ability to pay. Secondly, the foundation is calling for all emergency inhalers to be fitted with a dose counter. Inhalers are often relied on in moments of life or death—in emergencies—yet nearly three quarters of patients cannot tell when their inhaler is empty. They go on using them, trusting them, only to find when it matters most that they offer no relief. For too many families, that avoidable failure has had devastating consequences. Those two simple changes could prevent thousands of hospital admissions every year and, importantly, they could save lives. I ask the Minister whether she will meet with me and the George Coller Memorial Fund organisers to discuss these vital recommendations? Will she commit to a 10-year respiratory health plan that finally treats this crisis with the urgency it demands?

• 15 May 2025 · Coroner Services: West Midlands · Hansard source

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  I can say confidently that the coroners I have worked with work tirelessly, and often outside their working hours, to deliver the best possible service, but the limitations on them are of concern. Although coroners are doing their level best, they are limited—certainly in Birmingham—in what they can do if they do not have the resources. I hope that the Minister can take that issue away for review and support. I agree with my hon. Friend about the good work that coroners do up and down the country. There must be training, awareness and sensitivity within coroner services, registrars and local councils. For example, in Birmingham we have a relationship whereby there is a rapid release system as hospitals understand the sensitivities and do their utmost to ensure that a body is released. Unfortunately, to give another example, one family were left grieving because a deceased’s body could not be given to the undertaker at Queen Elizabeth hospital because there was no individual who could do the handover. The family had to wait over the weekend just to get the deceased’s body. We need to look at how we can work across all sectors to ensure that they are properly resourced and we avoid any unnecessary delay.

• 2 Apr 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q7. This Labour Government have failed the British public at every turn: they have abandoned the WASPI women, leaving them without the compensation they deserve; they have turned their backs on pensioners by failing to support the winter fuel allowance; they have let down children by keeping the two-child benefit cap in place; and they will inflict further hardship on the most vulnerable by slashing £5 billion from benefits. Perhaps the most immediate and visible failure, which poses an immediate and direct health risk to the people of Birmingham, is the appalling financial mismanagement of Labour-run Birmingham city council. After more than a decade of Labour control, that council’s incompetence has led to mountains of uncollected rubbish piling up on every street, so large that they can be seen by satellites orbiting in space. It is nothing short of a disgrace and a damning indictment of Labour’s inability to govern. Will the Prime Minister take urgent action to protect public health and the people of Birmingham by immediately deploying the—

• 21 Jan 2025 · Welfare of Doctors · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his articulate and persuasive statement. In my constituency, we have surgeries such as the Al-Shafa medical centre, which has more than 6,000 patients. Given the pressure on the NHS, more work, such as basic analysis and experiments relating to cardiovascular disease and so forth, now needs to be done in local surgeries. Does the hon. Member agree that when such GP practices have the additional burden of paying increased national insurance, there need to be more methods, or maybe redirection of income, so that they can sustain their great work in constituencies?

• 16 Dec 2024 · Israel and Palestine · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I thank the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage), the petitioner Sandra Downs, and all the petition signatories up and down the country. It is fair to say that we have heard a lot of discussions and statements by hon. Members all saying pretty much the same thing: that what is taking place in Gaza is a genocide and that the UK Government need to do more. It is almost sickening to be constantly reminded by some that there is an agenda of self-defence when everyone—even children at schools—can see what is taking place on social media. They see stories like that of Hind Rajab, which was mentioned by the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne); more bullets penetrated that vehicle than she had bones. They see stories like that and they are outraged by politicians who stand up and somehow provide this smokescreen of self-defence. Self-defence has parameters. Excessive self-defence is no defence. It cannot be used to avoid accountability. We are constantly reminded by senior political figures, whether from this country or America, that somehow this is self-defence, when everybody else can see that it is not. Look at the words of Benjamin Netanyahu: “Amalek” is the word he used. Look at some of the video footage that comes out of Gaza. Animals, including donkeys, are being shot so that food cannot reach its destination. Paramedics are being killed. Recently, a doctor at a hospital was murdered, raped and put out on to the streets. Some are saying this is all part of the agenda not to give the Palestinians any recourse even to medical aid. Because what have we got? More than 200 aid workers killed and 500 medical staff killed. These are just some of the basic stats that everybody in this country can see, yet we still have arguments of self-defence. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am not going to take up too much time, because other Members want to speak, but we have an opportunity early next year. My colleague, the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam), has presented a Bill on the recognition of Palestinian statehood. That is our opportunity to stand up for the rights of the Palestinians. They have suffered far too much.

• 12 Sept 2024 · NHS: Independent Investigation · Hansard source

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  A key finding in the Darzi report is that NHS staff morale is low. The Medical Defence Union of medical practitioners stated recently that more than 44% of NHS staff will reduce the number of hours that they work, because of low morale. Will the Secretary of State meet representatives of the union to explore those issues and work out ways of improving staff morale?