Ben Coleman MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Sept 2026 · Pharmacies: Government Funding · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Leicester East (Shivani Raja) on securing the debate. My hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan) will be aware that measles outbreaks are increasing, not least because of a decline in measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. The Government told the Health and Social Care Select Committee, on which I serve, that they need to do more with schools and GPs. We contend that they need to use pharmacies far more. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that as all families visit pharmacies, the Government should enable pharmacies to give MMR vaccinations and grip this properly, so we can crack the challenge of the measles outbreaks, which seem to be increasing in our country?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Online Safety · Hansard source

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  This is a really tremendous statement—I welcome it, and congratulate and thank my right hon. Friend for it. We have touched on the tech companies. Sadly, we can expect them to push back, and they may get support on the other side of the Atlantic. I encourage my right hon. Friend to work closely with our friends in the European Union who have similar aims to protect their children to give ourselves as much clout and oomph in the negotiations ahead.

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  One of my concerns about the abolition of NHS England is that highly specialised services for treating the rarest and most complex conditions—of which there are only 79 in the country—currently sit directly with NHS England. It is not clear whether those services will continue to be commissioned centrally. Does my hon. Friend think it would be helpful if the Minister could clarify that?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I am also a member of the APPG, and I was also at that meeting. On the Health Committee, we raised the point about these short-term pilots, and we managed to get an extra year’s funding. I have to say—I will say this as the person I am—that I feel that if this was a problem that predominantly affected white people instead of black people, it would be taken a lot more seriously. I think that the Government need to reflect on that when they are deciding whether to accept this amendment and whether they wish to give sickle cell sufferers the full support that they need, which they are not getting.

• 3 Sept 2026 · Vaccination Rates: England · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) and colleagues on the Health and Social Care Committee for securing this important debate. I am particularly concerned about the fall in childhood vaccination rates and what that means for diseases such as measles, which we had all but eliminated. Before I entered Parliament, I served as a councillor on the North West London integrated care board. Because our figures were so poor, I pushed for North West London NHS to deliver MMR vaccinations through community pharmacies. All families go to pharmacies, so it seemed an obvious thing to do, but I was told that it was simply too complicated. I pushed a bit, and I got two pharmacies into a sort of project. It was a start, but it was nowhere near enough. When I became a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, then, I was delighted to have the opportunity to pursue the matter. As has been mentioned, when NHS England and UK Health Security Agency officials came before the Committee in February, warning signs were already flashing red. The UK had lost its measles elimination status, London had the lowest childhood vaccination coverage in the country, and children were being hospitalised by a disease that is entirely preventable. It was extraordinary: I was strongly struck by the feeling they gave off of a complete lack of urgency in how they saw the problem. I asked whether anyone had assessed the cost to the NHS of under-vaccination; the answer was no. I asked why a pharmacy MMR pilot across 43 sites in the north-west had not continued; I was told that it had worked as a campaign, but making it routine was “a different question”. I asked whether that question was even being assessed, and it clearly was not. Sadly, since the Committee’s inquiry the situation has got worse, not better. As my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip touched on, UKHSA data shows that, as of 17 August, England had recorded 970 laboratory-confirmed measles cases this year alone. Of those, 650 patients were children aged 14 or under, and more than half of all cases were in London. I am not saying that pharmacies are silver bullets—the Committee also heard arguments about strengthening school-age immunisation services—but it should not be either/or. It should be schools, GPs and pharmacies. We should use every available route to help our children and their families. Officials told the Committee that they do not want to use pharmacies for childhood vaccination because they still do not know whether the evidence supports it. Surely, Minister, the obvious answer is to get the evidence. What are the Government doing to get the evidence? Will they get it by commissioning a proper evaluation of the use of pharmacies for routine MMR vaccination, with a clear deadline? In short, will the Minister ensure that the NHS stops prevaricating and acts before more children pay the price?

• 3 Sept 2026 · Children in the Social Care System: England · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, the care-experienced young people who live in Fulham benefit from the fact that the council recognises care-experienced as a protected characteristic. That means that council housing teams and schools and recruitment processes inside Hammersmith and Fulham have to actively check that their decisions do not disadvantage care leavers. They have to track outcomes, and care leavers have the right to recourse. Currently, this only happens if decent councils such as Hammersmith and Fulham choose to do so. Is there an argument for pressing the Government to make care-experienced a protected characteristic in law?

• 1 Sept 2026 · EU Foreign and Security Co-operation · Hansard source

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  At the moment, the European Union is taking big decisions to address the challenges it faces. Those decisions affect us, too, but we are not at the table—I am thinking of tariffs on steel made in Europe and the Security Action for Europe defence procurement programme. Will the Minister reassure my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham that the Government will press ahead with a summit this year, that they will get good deals for young people and on the price of food and energy, and that they will seek to be more ambitious and bold in getting us back a seat at the table so that we can play a part in making the decisions that affect us?

• 14 Jul 2026 · UK-Switzerland Enhanced Free Trade Agreement · Hansard source

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  I join the City of London and the British Chambers of Commerce in welcoming this deal—I’m smiling too, Minister! I am sure that the large number of my residents in Chelsea and Fulham who work in financial services will be delighted, too, and that they will have a lot of questions to ask. I wonder whether I could invite the Minister to come and have a meeting with them in my constituency to sell and make quite clear to them the opportunities, both in the City and across the country, that this deal now presents.

• 8 Jul 2026 · European Entry and Exit System · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all that he is doing to sort out this mess. Does he agree that the queues and delays facing British travellers under the EU’s entry-exit system were entirely avoidable? Had Britain kept its seat at the table, we would not be subject to these to checks at all, we would have had a voice in the system design and roll-out over the past five years, and we could have made it work better. Instead, just as with steel and electric vehicles, we find ourselves on the receiving end of decisions rather than shaping them. Does he agree that is precisely why we need an ambitious new partnership with the EU, so that Britain can genuinely take back control and British people’s European holidays do not start and end in chaos?

• 30 Jun 2026 · National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation · Hansard source

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  I am not a doctor, but thank you so much, Madam Deputy Speaker. Perhaps I am a doctor from the university of life—who knows? I pay tribute to Baroness Amos for this excellent report, and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) for commissioning it. It is a remarkable piece of work. It follows on from Ockenden, and the report on black maternal health done by my Health and Social Care Committee—its Chair, the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran), sits on the Opposition Benches. We see the same problems again and again: misogyny, racism and a lack of accountability. I am therefore delighted that this plan will be developed in six months, through the taskforce, and that we will have a maternity commissioner. I know that my constituent Louise Thompson, who has been campaigning hard for this position to be created, will be delighted. However, like me, I think she will have a question about timing. Will it be possible for the commissioner, who will be introduced on a statutory basis, to be brought in quickly enough for them to have a full role in shaping and creating the plan that will be before us in six months? If not, why not?

• 24 Jun 2026 · Nottingham Maternity and Neonatal Services · Hansard source

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  The Ockenden report is shocking and its findings are repellent. As my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) said, it is shocking how many of its findings also featured in a report on black maternal health that the Health and Social Care Committee, on which I sit, published last September. As she set out, women were not listened to. There was no accountability, weak leadership, a toxic culture, racial inequality, understaffing and poor data gathering. All those things are referenced in both reports, and my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn) pointed out that things have been getting worse over the past 20 years. It used to be the case that women who were black were 4.7 times as likely to die in childbirth or around childbirth as white women. The figure is now only 2.3 times. While we can welcome that, the sad fact is that it is not because things have got better for black women; it is because things have got worse for everybody else across the country. The Ockenden report and its findings on what happened are the culmination of problems that have been building for years. I want to recognise my constituent, Louise Thompson. She suffered terribly giving birth, when the NHS would not listen to her about the care she needed. She is now running a powerful campaign for a maternity commissioner and improved maternal care. I hope she will meet my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) soon. The Secretary of State promises a comprehensive action plan to be formed by a national maternity and neonatal taskforce. That is welcome, but we have had action plans in the past and they have not delivered the change promised. Given that record, will the Government commit to publishing measurable targets and firm deadlines within the action plan and to report progress to Parliament at fixed intervals? We need to know, and women across the country need to know, what will really be different this time.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful for that intervention, but it does not in any way even attempt to address the point I was making about the loss of money to this country through trade and the fact that so many businesses have gone under. On state aid and product procurement, I will accept that one of the most unpalatable things that civil servants have always said, along with “commercial in confidence”, is, “No, we can’t do that because of EU procurement rules.” After the changes to EU procurement rules there was, even while we were in the European Union, a huge amount that you could do to prefer small and local firms, as I knew when I was deputy leader of my local council and got officials to do that. The civil servants you were dealing with perhaps should have looked again—

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I was going to say that I cannot be the only person in the House who is thrilled by the great list of exciting things that the hon. Lady is setting out for the country. I wonder why she did not do any of them during the 14 years she was in power, why it is only now that she has ideas for the country, and whether she could have done something that would not have led to the catastrophe that we are trying to put right—just a suggestion.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  It will come as no surprise to anybody that what the previous Prime Minister said and the truth perhaps did not have the closest of relationships. It is absolutely no surprise, looking at what has happened, that the London School of Economics found that new border checks and paperwork pushed up UK prices by more than 7% between 2019 and 2023, adding around £250 to our grocery bills. It is also no wonder that 20,000 small businesses, all with fewer than 10 employees, have simply stopped exporting to Europe—not by choice but because the costs got too high. The war with Iran is making things even worse. It is pushing up energy and food costs around the globe. Our country’s economic security demands that we do all we can to reduce business costs and limit price increases, working with our European allies. That is where the European partnership Bill comes in. For months now, the Government have been negotiating a new sanitary and phytosanitary—food and drink—agreement with the EU. This would sweep away the certificates, checks and fees that have added so many costs to food and agricultural trade with Europe. The aim is to wrap that up by the next EU summit, but to bring it into force we need the European partnership Bill. Under the SPS deal, multi-page export health certificates, phytosanitary certificates, port health authority costs and sampling costs would all go. The Bill will support that. It will also provide the framework to implement an emissions trading agreement, which will link the UK’s emissions trading scheme with that of the EU. That will give us a larger, more stable carbon market, support investments in new technologies and help us to decarbonise more efficiently. Together, the food and drink deal and the emissions trading agreement could add nearly £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The sanitary and phytosanitary rules, which are being discussing and negotiated with the European Union, will be implemented by the European partnership Bill. Does the hon. and learned Member not accept that that will give us a seat at the table, when it comes to developing food and drink standards? Does he not also take a certain amount of pleasure from the fact that the Bill will remove the food and drink trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which arise from Northern Ireland’s effective membership of the European single market?

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  That was a very powerful and upsetting speech. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) for raising that issue. There is a lot to think about. In a world of growing uncertainty, our country’s economic security has never mattered more, which is why I have to say I am delighted by the European partnership Bill in the King’s Speech. Right now, our rigid distancing from the EU is simply holding us back. It has piled costs on to business and has done nothing for ordinary people. If Members visit the Italian-Spanish deli on the King’s Road in my constituency, they will see that the shelves are half bare because the white van person who used to make buying runs across northern Europe cannot or does not want to do the paperwork any more. A drinks importer in Fulham is paying £100 to £150 extra per pallet. These are import businesses, but the costs fall on exporters just as hard, and small businesses can least afford the costs they now face. Large sectors are also paying heavily for our rigid distancing from the European Union. British cars now have to meet a separate set of regulatory requirements just to enter European markets, and it is costing the automotive sector £600 million a year that they did not used to have to pay. In chemicals, leaving the EU REACH registration scheme and creating an entirely separate one has left the UK industry facing a £2 billion bill. In pharmaceuticals, British products are waiting for four to six weeks for batch testing before they can get into European supply chains. Ten years ago, none of those costs existed. Why not? We all know the answer: because we and our European neighbours were in a single market together. Once outside that market, Britain became subject to all these new trade barriers, just like any non-EU country, which pushed up costs. Indeed, in the food and drink sector, costs for British exporters have risen by as much as 20%. Since 2023, businesses have had to pay for over a million multi-page export health certificates just to trade with the EU, at a total cost of between £90 million and £210 million. Each certificate costs up to £200 quid. This did not used to be the case. A salmon shipment can then face sampling costs of £1,400 on top. The cost can be £1,200 for a consignment of beef or cheese. If you have got the forms even slightly wrong, valuable produce can be held at the border, or spoiled entirely.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Liz Truss!

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I am afraid I will not; I have given way twice, and I do not think I will get any more time. The European partnership Bill will also give Ministers the essential power to keep UK regulations in step with EU rules more broadly, without needing an Act of Parliament every time. The jargon phrase that we have heard is “dynamic alignment”—keeping our rules compatible with those of our largest trading partner, rather than constantly playing catch-up. Crucially, this is not a one-way street. Unlike the situation we have now, this will give the UK a seat at the table in Brussels where food standards are being developed. Parliament will also retain its say before any EU rules are applied here. We will be replacing the patchwork of ad hoc fixes that we have now with a clear and stable framework that businesses can plan around. Importantly, if we pass the Bill, which I expect we will, that will be a sovereign decision, freely made—not because we have to but because the prize is too great to walk away from. The European partnership Bill will deliver real relief and real advantages for food and drink businesses now. It will pave the way to bringing down costs in other areas such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and automotive. It is a patriotic and hopeful Bill. It will boost British business and strengthen our country’s economic and energy security. I look forward to it building our country’s growth and future in Europe.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful, Madam Deputy Speaker. Such officials as gave that information could have looked again.

• 18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Now will he give way?