Ben Coleman MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) for her excellent speech and for securing the debate. I am quite excited about Saturday week, not just because it will be my birthday on 5 July—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you so much—but because the national health service will be 77. Yes, it has survived that long. [ Interruption. ] I have survived slightly less long, I would like the House to think. Despite the years of cuts and chaos which have left the NHS broken, it is not beaten and we are rebuilding it. There is a huge amount to do, but we are making progress. After record funding in our first Budget, I am delighted that the spending review has put the health of our nation first. And, as touched on by colleagues, I am equally delighted that the Government are determined to reform how the NHS works to get a bigger bang for our buck and better outcomes for patients, because we need that. We know we have masses to do. My hon. Friend set out many of the splendid things we have done so far, including getting waiting lists down to their lowest for two years, which is quite an achievement after only 11 months of this Government. On a more personal level, I am delighted that my constituency is benefiting directly from having a Labour Government. Charing Cross hospital has been given millions of pounds extra to upgrade vital infrastructure, including new MRI scanners, modernised operating theatres, better energy security and a big refurbishment of the ground and first floors, all under this Government. I also hugely welcome the new investment in GPs in my patch: the Cassidy medical centre, Ashville surgery, Palace surgery in Fulham and the Chelsea practice have all been earmarked for new funding under the Government to improve facilities and help provide better care. Finally, I am excited by the possibilities of the new neighbourhood health service, which we are looking forward to in the 10-year health plan. Locally, I look forward to playing my full part in bringing together all the local health and social care practitioners, so that my residents get the better healthcare they have been waiting so long for and deserve. While I do that, I will also be working to ensure that we confront health inequalities and end the situation that we have now where people get less good access to health, less good treatment and less good outcomes simply because of their colour, what they earn or their disabilities. We must end that. The spending review continues the work we have begun of repairing a health system that has been left bruised and battered, down but not out. Combined with the 10-year plan, we will be putting the nation’s health on a better path for the future and creating the change that people so vigorously voted for.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Incontinence · Hansard source

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  A big thank you to my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar) for securing this extremely important debate. I was fascinated and not a little shocked to hear that this is the first full debate in the Chamber on this subject, and it is absolutely tremendous that we are talking about it, because we need to. As everyone has recognised, it is a subject that people rarely talk about, despite the fact that millions of people are affected by bladder and bowel control issues—I will try to use that phrase instead of the term “incontinence”, after hearing the point that my hon. Friend rightly raised; I was scribbling away when she said that. For much too long, this issue has been treated as a private embarrassment—something to whisper about, not act on. I was struck by what she said about the number of people who got in touch with her, crying out for this subject to be discussed, and for us to take action. We need to take action, because as well as being a very important health issue, it is almost a social justice issue, and an issue of dignity. Far too many people and families face a daily struggle that has been quietly ignored. As was said, it is estimated that one in three women in the UK experiences urinary control issues, but the issue affects men, too. It is important that men speak in this debate, and I am very pleased that the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper) did. As for my city, London, a recent survey for Prostate Cancer UK found that 54% of all male Londoners had experienced urinary control problems. More than one in four men—28%—experienced symptoms as early as between the ages of 18 and 25. That contradicts the widely held view that bladder conditions affect only older adults. Then, of course, we come to bowel incontinence, which is more closely associated with age: 15% of those aged over 85 and living at home are affected, and the figure is even higher for men and women living in residential and nursing homes. Of course, we also have to think about bladder and bowel conditions affecting children and young people, and especially those with disabilities, whose voices are often the last to be heard anyway, and particularly the last to be heard on this subject. Disabled and other children with these conditions can miss out on education, friendships and an ordinary life because of a lack of basic provision. Families feel ashamed when they ask for help, because they think that no one else is facing the same thing. That brings us back to the importance of us discussing this matter in the House today. Many families face this issue; we need to make it safe to talk about it, and safe to ask for support. As I say, bladder and bowel conditions are not only a health issue, but a social justice issue, and it is time we treated them as such, because that is not what happens now. Despite the evident human cost, and the prevalence of these conditions across society, support and services remain inadequate, and those affected and their families are left to scramble for help. They face stigma. They too often endure isolation, yet as my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley set out, there are simple, straightforward solutions that would make a huge difference to those who live with bladder and bowel control issues. We can start by destigmatising the issue; that is what we are doing today, as has been said. At a national level, we need a public health campaign, led by the Department of Health and Social Care, that makes it clear that these conditions are normal, treatable and nothing to be ashamed of. Let me tell Members about one of the very few people in either House that I have heard talk about these conditions. I went to a meeting on assisted dying—one of many such meetings, which colleagues of all parties have been to—at which I heard from a disabled Member of the House of Lords, and other people who are disabled and wheelchair users. They spoke in a very matter-of-fact way about being incontinent—that was the word they used. They made it quite clear that it was perfectly possible to lead a normal and fulfilling life with that condition. When I was growing up, older people would say to me, “The one thing I dread above all is being incontinent— I think I’d take my life if that happened.” It was very inspiring for me to hear a Member of the other place talking about their situation, and talking about it released all of us from a particular challenge when it came to reflecting on assisted dying. My hon. Friend the Member for Dudley mentioned Prostate Cancer UK’s Boys Need Bins campaign. There are others, including the End Bladder Shame campaign by TENA, the maker of incontinence products. These things show what is possible if people feel heard—but they need more support. Alongside a public health campaign, let us have more investment in infrastructure. That means more modern, accessible public toilets with clean, safe disposal facilities for men as well as women, which has been a long-standing request from charities like Age UK. We need to make sure that every school—mainstream schools as well as specialist schools—has trained staff who can support children with bladder and bowel conditions, not as an afterthought but as part of their core pastoral care. We have a Minister from the Department of Health and Social Care on the Front Bench, but I hope she can pass on the message to her colleagues in the Department for Education that they should make sure school toilets are accessible, hygienic and inclusive, with disposal bins, locks and space—with dignity built in. Finally, I would like to see us integrate bladder and bowel care into national health strategies. They should be a core part of NHS England’s work on long-term conditions, ageing and preventive care, not an afterthought. I look forward to that being reflected in the 10-year plan and, I hope, in the forthcoming men’s health strategy. Better bladder and bowel care will save men, women and their families from stress, it will save children from shame and the feeling of being left behind, and, wonderfully, as my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley said, it will save public money. It is a public good, and if we take this seriously, it will make a huge difference to a lot of people’s lives. Let us give this issue the attention it deserves and do right by every person who has been living with these conditions in silence for too long.

• 17 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  According to the Trussell Trust, the impact of hunger and hardship on people’s health is driving an extra £6.3 billion in Government healthcare spending. What part is the Department playing in reducing hunger and hardship—and thus the related healthcare cost—in my constituency and across the country?

• 3 Jun 2025 · Dementia Care · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful to the hon. Member for leading this debate so effectively and raising these important issues. She will be aware that three in four dementia carers have no alternative plans in place if they are unable to provide care. Many of them are terrified about what will happen to their loved ones if they are no longer there to provide care, and nine in 10 have already reached crisis point, with burnout and depression. Does she agree that dementia carers need to be fully supported to put alternative care arrangements in place? May I urge the Minister to implement a carers strategy that sets out carers’ rights and what support carers should receive when it comes to alternative provision?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his nomenclature, and I am most grateful to my Jacobin friend for taking my intervention. I did not want him to finish without having the opportunity to answer the question that my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) put to him. Exports of UK seafood to the European Union have fallen by 80% since Brexit, and there have been lots of new checks, and there is lots of new paperwork and bureaucracy. What does he put that down to? Exports of seafood have collapsed. Does he put that down to Brexit, or to something else?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Many people may still be finding things a little bit gloomy and challenging as a result of the mess left by the previous Government, as I am after 10 months of being a Member of Parliament, but today I am incredibly heartened. It is probably the happiest day I have spent in the House yet, because we have a real opportunity to be hopeful and positive about the future of this country. The ideology and chaos that have caused so much damage, with the Conservative Government running frit from the Reform party, have now given way to a party that is pragmatic and has proven itself to be competent. I would love at this stage to congratulate the Government on their tremendous securing of trade deals with India and the USA. I am looking forward to the hat-trick, where we secure a trade deal with the European Union that is even bigger and better than either of those two, and all in the British interest. What is absolutely clear to me—everybody knows this in the Labour party and it runs through everything the Prime Minister has said—is that this country has to get growth. Over the last 14 years, services have been decimated. Every time the new Government open a cupboard, we find it bare. We have to rebuild our public services, and the swiftest way to get growth in the economy is by having a good trade deal with the European Union. Nothing will guarantee swifter growth for the economy.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for giving way. I took a third of the time that her colleague, the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin), took for his speech. Is she genuinely suggesting that we should tell this House right now what we will be negotiating in Brussels next week—that we should give away the full details of our strategy? Perhaps that is the attitude that the Conservative Government took when they were negotiating the trade deal with Australia; the Conservative former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that it was a poor deal that let our farmers down. Given her approach, no wonder that happened.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. The hon. Member touches a soft spot when he mentions Lord Dubs, who is a great friend and a doughty campaigner in my constituency. Lord Dubs will have his views, but I was talking about the Prime Minister setting out an absolute commitment to increase the skills of young people right across the country, and that is in no way undermined by the prospect of a controlled visa-based youth experience scheme. In such unstable times, it is right that we should seek a closer relationship with the European Union that will strengthen defence and security alongside our commitment to NATO. I am hopeful that the Government will pull off an agreement that, as hon. Friends of mine have said already, will bring new jobs in the defence industries of this country. We are facing the starkest, most serious defence challenge that we have faced for decades, and we have to meet it together with the European Union. Having spoken to many ambassadors here, I know that they welcome Britain playing its full role in defending our shared continent. That is what we are doing as a Government. That is why it is so disappointing, with all the prospects and excitement ahead of us, to hear the Conservatives and Reform still putting ideology first, ahead of growth and security. They are failing to say what they would do instead and just want to continue with the status quo. The hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) talked about the chaos that was brought to Kent, where trucks backed up for miles near Dover because the infrastructure for customs checks was never ready, and fresh produce rotted in the queue. That was under the Conservative Government. They jeopardised car manufacturing in Birmingham and the west midlands, which is a region that relies on just-in-time EU supply chains. It was hit with rules of origin checks, rising costs, and delayed parts—thanks to the Conservatives. They sold out Cornwall’s poorest communities by moving out of European structural funds that has millions in them, replacing them with a shared prosperity fund worth far less. That was the Conservative Government’s failed Brexit. They weakened Port Talbot and the south Wales steel industry, made exports harder and reduced competitiveness in what was already a challenging global market. They undermined Scottish farmers and distillers by erecting barriers to their largest export market. This is all part of the record that the Conservatives are delighted to defend. I would not be delighted to defend such a record, but they are—so much so that they have brought forward this ridiculous motion today. I am delighted by the amendment that the Government have tabled. The contrast between our pragmatic, cool-headed approach and these ideologues could not be starker. It is refreshing.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for stressing that point. She is absolutely right; we have a Government who have replaced chaos and ideology with cool-headed, pragmatic determination. We have a trade deal with India and with the US, and we are going to get a good trade deal with the European Union. That is why it is a day for rejoicing, not for doom and gloom and people rehashing the past. Not a single one of the Conservatives, except the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar on the Front Bench, who accepted that despite Brexit the economy grew a little bit—

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I am trying to understand if, at some point, we will hear anything from the Conservative party about what its Members think could be improved in the Brexit agreement that has been so bad for their party. We are talking about getting a better Brexit agreement than the one they negotiated. Are they saying that what they did was perfect, or can it be improved on? If it can, how? Everything else the hon. Gentleman has said has been negative.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Before we leave young people, Opposition Members have said that we are not doing enough for our young people and that a scheme would cause problems. Does my hon. Friend welcome the fact that yesterday the Prime Minister said that we must put British young people at the front of the queue for skills and training? The Government have already committed £625 million for training up 60,000 young engineers, chippies and brickies—

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  On the subject of lamb, will my hon. Friend reflect on the fact—I asked this of the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey)—that the previous Government negotiated a trade deal with Australia that a former Conservative Environment Secretary described as a disaster for our farmers, not least those farming lamb?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Oh, I didn’t realise sarcasm wasn’t allowed. As I was saying, I am very pleased, as many are, with the Government for being cool-headed and having a common-sense approach. We are going to reset our relationship with the European Union and put Britain first. Putting Britain first has to also mean putting our young people first, so I am excited by the opportunity for young people in my constituency and every constituency to take advantage of a time-limited, controlled visa-based youth experience scheme, which we already have with a dozen countries.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I can tell the right hon. Gentleman what people in Chelsea and Fulham really want. They do not want a Prime Minister like the last but one—a “bugger business” Prime Minister—who said that we would level up to help people across the country but then did nothing about it. What they want is a Prime Minister who will invest in increasing skills and apprenticeships right across the country, as ours said yesterday that he will. That is what we need, and that is what we are getting now.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Member. If the Reform party’s entire shtick for getting elected is being anti-EU and thinking that it can defend the interests of the British people better by continuing the chaotic, unfavourable system we have, with that being its entire reason for existence, it is not okay for one of its Members of Parliament to ask a couple of questions and skedaddle. As for the hon. Member for Clacton—and for Florida—I do not know what he is doing today, but he ought to be here. We should be cheered—it is refreshing—so let us be a little more optimistic as we look to next week and not say, “We’re always going to be out-diddled by French and Germans.” That counsel of despair is pathetic. We are perfectly capable of negotiating trade deals, as we have shown with deals with the US and India, to get the best for the British people, and that is what we will do with the European Union. That is what the people of this country voted for at the last election: an end to failed ideology, and the start of applied, cool-headed, determined common sense. As a result, at the end of the meeting next week and in future years, the British people will benefit. We should all be delighted about that.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I trust that I am not. I hope that the right hon. Gentleman appreciated when I said earlier how excited I was for the prospects ahead of us. I want to thank him for identifying me a couple of times and associating me with my constituents, which I am certainly proud of. I also thank the right hon. Gentleman and a number of his colleagues for making me feel like I have been in this place not for 10 months but for 10 years, and for giving me the privilege of seeing the Brexit debate live, writ large again. It is a rare opportunity that I did not know I would get as a Member of this House, and I am most grateful.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I find it very hard to take anything that the Conservatives say with any degree of seriousness. What is their explanation for why, after 14 years, public services are on their knees and we have seen a collapse in the economy? We even heard a Conservative Front Bencher, the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart), say that there has been growth since leaving the European Union “despite Brexit”—even the Conservatives admit that it was a disaster. Nothing will deliver the growth that this country needs faster than signing a good deal with the European Union, slashing red tape and reducing regulation with the biggest market on our doorstep. Opening up markets, kick-starting growth, boosting exports and investments and reducing prices at home—this prize would be welcomed by anyone who is not a crazy ideologue. We on the Government side are not crazy ideologues or prisoners of our past—or of a television programme from the past. The actions that the Conservatives took while in government have damaged the British people. Businesses across the country, and in Chelsea and Fulham, want us to get a good deal from the European Union. People in my constituency do not want us to rejoin the EU, and I am not talking about rejoining. They would like us still to be in it, and they think it has done them damage. The importer of wine in my constituency who has to pay £160 for every consignment he now brings in would like us still to be in the EU and to not have to face that. But they do not want us to spend the next five years renegotiating the deal.

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  I have to say, when you ask about Lord Dubs—

• 13 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Member give way?

• 24 Apr 2025 · Local Authority Procurement: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  7. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to assist local authorities in using public procurement to help create economic growth.