Brian Leishman MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Nov 2025 · ExxonMobil: Mossmorran · Hansard source

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  Sadly, this is an all-too-familiar story: private capital closing industry, leaving workers as disposable commodities to be tossed aside, and a community devastated. It is a carbon copy of what happened with Ineos and PetroChina and the Grangemouth oil refinery. The Government stepped in at Scunthorpe, but they did not at Grangemouth and it looks like they will not at Mossmorran. Why not? Because Scotland is once again the victim of chronic deindustrialisation. For the sake of Scottish workers and communities, let’s get the £200 million spent, let’s get Project Willow going, let’s get new companies in, let’s get the good-paying jobs that my community and my town desperately need—and, for goodness’ sake, let’s have a bit of common sense and take some form of Government ownership in what comes next at Grangemouth.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Asylum Policy · Hansard source

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  Quite a few things in this statement need to be challenged. First, there is the suggestion that Britain has always been a welcoming, generous and warm place for immigrants and people seeking asylum. There will be many people from an Irish background whose ancestors faced prejudice, as will there be many Jews and Muslims who have been victims of antisemitism and Islamophobia, and let us not forget about the Windrush scandal. With what we have heard today, I am afraid that the Government have surrendered to past discriminations and the vile rhetoric of Reform that we hear today. Does the Home Secretary not see that removing the legal obligation to support asylum seekers who would be otherwise destitute is as far away from Labour party principles and values as we can get?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  When will the Government lift the two-child cap?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  Although I currently sit as an independent MP, I am still a proud member of the Labour party. Instead of preoccupying myself with the stances, opinions and views of other parties, which I have absolutely no control over whatsoever, all I care about is where Labour is and what Labour does. I wholeheartedly agree with any Labour party member whenever they say that our party’s mission and reason for being is to lift people out of poverty—after all, that is one of the main reasons why I joined. In 2024, 411 Labour Members were elected to provide change. It was an effective campaign message, but 16 months on, we still have the wicked and cruel two-child benefit cap. There have been promises that the Government are looking at lifting that cap and will do so when the fiscal situation allows and improves, but ultimately, it still has not been done. I regularly hear Members on my side of the House shouting “14 years!” and pointing the finger. I understand the roleplaying and game-playing that is involved, and with respect to all Members, everyone knows that the Conservative Government—in my opinion, certainly—was a cruel shambles for the past 14 years, one that punched down on the most vulnerable people in society. However, they are out; we are in. We are a Labour Government, but it is things like retaining the two-child benefit cap that we are being judged on. [ Interruption. ] I am happy to take an intervention—no? If Members think I am wrong or making life awkward, what I say to colleagues is, “Have a look at the polls. Listen to what people are saying.” What I hear from people on the doorstep and when I am out campaigning is anger at things like the two-child benefit cap, winter fuel, the treatment of the WASPI women, and welfare cuts. When will the leadership appreciate that the people impacted by those things are our people—our class? Instead of chasing disaffected Tory right-wing votes, what about looking after our core vote? The bottom line is that we must do more to lift people out of poverty and improve living standards. To not do so is a poverty of ambition. We are the Labour party, and we are in government; go and govern by real Labour party values.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Public Office (Accountability) Bill · Hansard source

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  First, I would like to record the respect I have for my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) for all he has done on the Hillsborough law. His relentless campaigning on it is equalled by his dedication in fighting another political injustice—that of food insecurity. It is fair to say that his community, the Labour party and this place are stronger for him being in them. What a catalogue of injustices, cover-ups and scandals our nation has seen. There are too many for me to mention in the short time that I have available, but the common theme is that working-class communities always seem to be the victims. Forty-one years on, people are still waiting for justice from the premeditated beatings handed out at Orgreave. Thirty-six years on, families and survivors who we have heard from today, including my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby, are still waiting for justice and accountability for what happened that day at Hillsborough. Eight years on from Grenfell, the memory of the 72 victims, and their families and friends, still wait for justice. Incredibly, approximately a quarter of a million people will go to bed tonight in buildings with the same flammable cladding surrounding them. How on earth can we sit in this place and allow that to be the case? Because I’ll tell you: if it was not working-class people who died in those buildings, then a lot more than what has been done so far would have been done by now. Furthermore, the firefighters who attended the scene at Grenfell are now suffering from serious health consequences because of their incredible recovery efforts. They too deserve answers and justice, and—crucially—the protective equipment that will keep them safe from the carcinogenic materials that they are exposed to in the line of duty. It is only right that my final comments are addressed to the Hillsborough families, both those here in Parliament today and those watching at home. You have waited so long for what is just; I am truly sorry that it has taken this length of time. You have shown that change is possible and that, more often than not, it comes from pressure applied by the general public, not this place.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Two giants of the Labour and anti-nuclear arms movement would have been 100 this year: Tony Benn and Mick McGahey. I never had the pleasure of meeting either, but I think they would have recognised that an industrial strategy based on militarism is flawed. The defence sector is less than 1% of the UK workforce, so militarism is not a UK-wide industry and it serves war, not peace. What happened to choosing welfare over warfare, and to choosing jobs in sectors that will promote real economic growth and actual social benefit?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Support for Disabled Veterans · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady very much for securing the debate, and for her generosity in taking so many interventions. In Clackmannanshire, we have the Wee County Veterans and Supporters Group, which provides incredible support and camaraderie to ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen. However, it is incredibly dismayed at the withdrawal of the armed services advice project from RBL, which has been replaced with a generic telephone service. I consider that to be a serious downgrade from RBL. Does the hon. Lady agree?

• 28 Oct 2025 · World Stroke Day · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) for securing this important debate and sharing her mum’s story. One of the best bits of being an MP is meeting individuals and organisations that do so much good across Alloa and Grangemouth, like when I met the Clackmannanshire Stroke Support Group earlier this year. Their courage, spirit and determination in the face of serious adversity was truly inspiring. I will focus on the relationship between deprivation and having a stroke. In Scotland, approximately 13,000 people have a first stroke each year. There are an estimated 150,000 stroke survivors in the country, and recent data shows that people in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to have a stroke as people from the most affluent areas. The relationship between deprivation and stroke mortality is over five times higher for those in the 10% most deprived areas compared with the 10% least deprived, in the under-65 age group. There is a significantly higher risk of dying within a year of having a stroke for those people from more deprived areas. These patients are less likely to receive recommended treatments such as blood thinners for atrial fibrillation, and are more likely to be given less effective alternatives. Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland works hard in communities across Scotland to deliver prevention and support recovery, and to enable people to self-manage their condition. But it cannot be up to organisations to fight this alone. They need help from the Scottish Government, and there must be a much more proactive approach adopted in how healthcare services are delivered. The postcode lottery in what treatment someone receives in Scotland because of where they live really must end.

• 27 Oct 2025 · North Sea Oil and Gas Industry · Hansard source

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  Incredibly, it is now eight months since the Prime Minister announced £200 million from the National Wealth Fund for the industrial future of Grangemouth. I have had meetings with numerous companies that have proposals and are, frankly, impatient to get started. When will this money be spent, and when will those jobs come to my town? All there is to show for it so far are the bones of an unjust transition and industrial devastation.

• 23 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  From his first stage performance in the Alloa town hall with the brilliant Forefront stage school to starring as Orpheus in “Hadestown” at the Lyric theatre in London, what a journey Tillicoultry actor Dylan Wood has been on from the wee county to the west end. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Dylan on his fantastic theatre run? Does he agree that Dylan is an inspiration to young people across Alloa and Grangemouth to pursue a career in the creative arts?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Devolution in Scotland · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I appreciate it. I thank the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this debate. The intense animosity that the Thatcher and Major Governments created made the prospect of more political power being based in Scotland highly attractive, but devolution has—so far, at least—been a let-down. The goal of taking meaningful decisions locally has not been realised, and that is pure political failure. Since devolution, local authorities’ ability to be vehicles for driving meaningful improvements to communities has been reduced because of underfunding. Power has been concentrated in big government in Edinburgh, and ironically the SNP has ended up repeating what happened under Thatcher and Major by diluting the influence of local councillors. Quite simply, communities need councils to be properly funded by the Scottish Government. De-industrialisation, insecure employment, low wages and child poverty were all features of life in Scotland back in 1999, and they still are, because this year Scotland lost its oil refining capacity, meaning that hundreds of jobs are gone—and Grangemouth has pockets of the worst poverty in the country, according to statistics from the Scottish index of multiple deprivation. Elsewhere, 25% of children in Clackmannanshire will go to bed tonight living in poverty. Imagine being born into poverty, and existing—not living—in poverty, unable to escape it. That is the reality of life for millions of Scots today. Another thing that negatively impacts life chances and the possibility of social mobility in working-class communities like mine is the collapse of the Scottish further education sector under this SNP Government, which other Members have mentioned. We have seen flat cash settlements, and funding for colleges reduced by 20% over the last five years. The principal of Forth Valley college says that if funding does not change, the Alloa campus will close in 2026, with Stirling set to close in 2027, and Falkirk more than likely to close in 2028. Living standards and life chances are plummeting in Scotland. The SNP Government have been in charge for nearly two decades. This is on them. If any nationalist dares say, “What about Wales?” or “The statistics are worse in England”, then they are showing themselves up. By using someone else’s poverty and hardship as some sort of perverse justification for the abject failure of governance in Holyrood, they show that they are not the bastions of socialism that they say they are. Socialists know that poverty is a political failure when it impacts any and every community. The report card for the Scottish Parliament says that it must do better, but let us be honest: the fact that councils are underfunded and colleges are in crisis is ultimately not because of a failure of devolution. The failures are down to the people in charge: this SNP Government. For the sake of devolution and for the sake of Scotland, we need a change next May.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Cost of Living · Hansard source

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  This weekend, thousands of people will march in Edinburgh to say that Scotland demands better. We are right to do so, because the Poverty Alliance says that one in six adults in Scotland—around 1.2 million people—are living in food insecurity. What are the Scotland Office and the wider Labour Government doing to end food insecurity for Scots?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The No. 1 issue facing this country is inequality. Civil liberties will potentially be infringed by the collection of private data. Millions of older people, people living in poverty and many disabled people will face digital exclusion. Of course, big tech corporations and their shareholders will be the real beneficiaries of the policy. There will be more inequality at home, and more taxpayers’ money going abroad. However, the SNP’s hypocrisy on digital ID is frankly staggering. It wants Scotland to forget about the £7 million of taxpayers’ money spent on a covid vaccine passport that breached data privacy laws. Unlike the SNP, I have been and will continue to be consistent in my opposition to mandatory digital ID.

• 20 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Colleges are the backbone of working-class communities such as mine in Clackmannanshire, but the funding model for colleges in Scotland is fundamentally broken because of SNP cuts. Will the Secretary of State write to her counterpart in the Scottish Government and highlight the importance of Alloa campus to the people of Clackmannanshire and the wider Forth valley, and stress that all Scottish colleges need to receive proper funding?

• 20 Oct 2025 · Maccabi Tel Aviv FC: Away Fans Ban · Hansard source

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  Let me just say from the outset that all forms of bigotry are abhorrent. A Dutch police report into the disorder in Amsterdam at the Ajax versus Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture determined that Maccabi fans tore down a Palestinian flag, set fire to it and chanted, “Fuck you, Palestine.” That is vile, disgusting Islamophobia in action. How about preventing that from happening here, because there is an extreme hooligan element of Maccabi fans who consistently behave in that manner? Do the Government not see that Islamophobic behaviour is highly likely if these fans travel to Birmingham? What about the safety of our Muslim citizens?

• 16 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  As an enthusiastic but error-prone goalkeeper, and having been a golf professional for 23 years, many will say that I have still to find a sport that I am any good at and they will be absolutely correct. Someone from my constituency who is excellent at sport is Ruby Henderson from Sauchie. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Ruby for winning a silver and bronze medal at last week’s taekwondo youth world championships in Croatia?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  This year, Petroineos—that is, Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos and PetroChina from the Chinese state—closed the Grangemouth oil refinery. Closure was not about some passionate quest for net zero. Closure happened because private capital and a foreign Government owned vital energy infrastructure, and because corporate profits are more important than community good to the billionaire Jim Ratcliffes of this world. There were 435 jobs lost at the refinery, and hundreds more lost in the shared services that are housed on site; 2,822 jobs were lost in the wider supply chain. That is mass de-industrialisation. But closure is not just about job losses. The exodus of talented, skilled workers is awful, but closure also means that the site is no longer a positive destination for many local young people leaving school. We have seen an end to a generational employer in my community. The economic consequences are also absolutely enormous for local Grangemouth businesses, which relied on the custom of refinery workers and their families. Once again, I want to give credit to all the small local businesses that have kept town centres going in recent years. The pressure of running a small business when austerity and the cost of living crisis have hammered people’s disposable incomes can be all-consuming and incredibly stressful. I should know; I tried it for some years. The economic turmoil of stopping refining is also a national issue, because the refinery was worth more than £400 million per annum to the Scottish economy. Politicians often talk about black holes. Well, that is a sizeable, industrial-shaped black hole to fill. I do not doubt that the Government understand the magnitude of how important it is to re-industrialise communities like mine in Grangemouth. The other day, I read my hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Mike Kane), who has done so much work to bring this Bill to the House, describing in Hansard the situation that he grew up in on the east side of Manchester, which lost its chemical and mining industries. He said: “We are still getting over that in my great city.” –– [ Official Report, Sustainable Aviation Fuel Public Bill Committee, 17 July 2025; c. 108.] He undoubtedly understands the social consequences of industry finishing up. No community can afford this continued spiral of industrial decline. To go back to my original point, we have for decades been an economy controlled by private capital, multinational corporations and foreign Governments whose policy has been to make things elsewhere, and to sell here. Have the last four decades not shown that the country’s complete reliance on private capital means profits over people? We must adopt a new industrial strategy that meets the needs of working people and their communities by securing at least some form of public ownership of the new industries that we will need—that is a mainstream political view. The Government must learn lessons to stop history repeating itself, and to prevent workers and communities having every last ounce of work extracted from them before they are discarded on a corporate whim. For the Government to create and benefit economically from the necessary green industrial revolution, which we need for our economy and for the planet, some form of Government ownership of future industries is necessary. Surely, that view should be at the heart of any Labour Government. If the Government want to put their faith in private capital to mould Britain’s new industrial future, I urge them to think again. They need to be more active in the process of creating Grangemouth’s industrial future. They need to seize the initiative and invest in workers, communities industry and Scottish manufacturing. Producing sustainable aviation fuel is an enormous objective—one that we have committed to—and sites like Grangemouth are ideally placed for it. The infrastructure needs some degree of conversion and upgrade, of course, but it is there. The workforce and expertise are there. My local community needs to be re-industrialised. The Labour Government have ambitious SAF targets to meet, but, more importantly, they also have obligations to communities in our forgotten industrial heartlands.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. For Palestinians, if suffering decades of oppression and apartheid, thousands being killed, and millions confined in an ever-reducing area as their homes are stolen and communities are destroyed was not bad enough, now the American President is devising a plan to carve up what is left of Palestinian territory for prime real estate. Will the Foreign Secretary categorically say at the Dispatch Box today that under no circumstances will the UK support this reprehensible plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine and create a “Gaza Riviera”, a “Trump Gaza” or whatever this grotesque plan is?

• 16 Jul 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q12. On 11 June, Alexander Dennis announced that it was planning to stop bus manufacturing in Scotland. My hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) and I have met the workers, the trade unions, the company and both UK and Scottish Government Ministers to see how closure can be averted. Alexander Dennis needs commitments to orders for 2025 and 2026, and elected mayors are ideally placed to do this. Our industrial strategy is right when it says that where things are made, and by whom, matters. As such, can the Prime Minister assure Alexander Dennis and the workers that he believes bus manufacturing should have a future in Larbert and Falkirk?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source

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  We live in a country where wealth is hoarded by the few while poverty is the fate of the many. Yes, the Government have taken some welcome steps, addressing non-dom status and imposing VAT on private school fees, and I make no apology for being ideological about that. Those are steps in the right direction, but, as has been shown by reforms to welfare, they are far from enough to stop cuts. The truth is that these policies do not come close to tackling the grotesque level of inequality in our country, nor will they generate the revenue that is needed to repair the failed ideology of austerity, privatisation and no small amount of political cowardice in the face of corporate greed. The 2010s were the decade in which the super-rich won. They were handed tax breaks, were shielded by loopholes, and watched their wealth explode while wages stagnated and services crumbled. Millionaires and billionaires flourished. As I said in the earlier debate this afternoon, the fact that in one of the richest economies in the world millions of people in full-time work are relying on food banks to survive is a national disgrace. They go to work, they do their shifts, and still they are left to rely on the charity of strangers to get by. This did not happen by accident. It is the result of deliberate political choices: austerity, privatisation, suppressed wages and a tax system rigged in favour of the ultra-wealthy. Even now, with Labour in power, we are being told to temper our ambition. How can we do that when there is a 13-year difference in life expectancy between the richest and the poorest in Scotland, and when thousands of children are growing up cold, hungry and facing an uncertain future? However, there is an alternative to relentless cuts. There is an alternative to balancing the books on the backs of the poorest. There is an alternative to managed decline as we watch the state become bankrupt both financially and morally. That alternative is genuinely progressive taxation alongside investment in people and communities. I find common ground with my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), in that I also support equalising capital gains tax with income tax. Currently, many who earn their living through work are taxed more than those who profit by sitting on their wealth. Equalising those rates could raise an additional £12 billion a year. My hon. Friend and I do, however, disagree about the introduction of an annual wealth tax. Since coming to this place, I have campaigned for the introduction of a 2% annual wealth tax on those with net assets over £10 million. This single policy could raise £24 billion a year, and the notion that the wealthy will flee en masse if we ask them to contribute fairly is a tired and dishonest argument. Even among the ultra-wealthy, there is a recognition that inequality has spiralled out of control. Many are willing to contribute more, as is confirmed by the work of Tax Justice UK and Patriotic Millionaires, but the Government must have the courage to do it. When we invest in public services, when we lift people up, we build a fairer country and a stronger economy. Children do better at school when they are fed, housed and supported. Workers are more productive when they are not spending every hour worried about how they will make ends meet. Families are stronger when the welfare state works for them, not against them. We have to find new and just ways to fund welfare, to fund the green transition, to fund public services and to rebuild the country. The labour movement was not built to tinker around the edges; it was built to transform, and if this Government are serious about real change—the change that we promised—we must be bolder than we have been so far. Redistribution of wealth and power for the benefit of workers and communities, and wider society, should always be the driving mission of any real Labour Government.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  Pessimism is understandable when brutality is overpowering. Just over a year ago, the British public tried to shake off that pessimism and emerge from the brutal reality of life in Britain after 14 years of relentless cuts that have torn apart the social safety net of our country. It is little wonder that people felt so pessimistic. The motion on welfare before us is the continuation of the austerity that has contributed to Britain becoming an incredibly unequal society. In 2010, 30,000 people needed an emergency food parcel; now, that figure is over 3 million and rising. Nearly 80% of people who are reliant on food banks are in work. While the very richest have received tax breaks and enjoyed seeing their wealth grow at eye-watering rates, we have seen the creation of a new stratum of society: the in-work poor. It is telling of the politics of this country that despite being the sixth largest economy in the world, we have people in full-time employment who are reliant on the generosity of others to survive. That is pure political failure. Morally, it is just not right. Having a child is a blessing, and not a blessing that everyone receives. The two-child cap is an inherently cruel policy that punishes the least advantaged. The idea that a third, fourth or fifth child is worth less than the first two is beyond wicked.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point, which I will come on to. He has clearly had advance sight of my speech. The Government should of course lift the two-child cap immediately, and it was wrong of them not to make that a part of the King’s Speech. The wording in the motion referring to a “benefits culture” is both lazy and classist, not to mention demonstrating the ignorance—wilful or otherwise—of the Conservatives about the struggles experienced by millions in this country. However, I expect that from some in the Conservative party. I agree that the welfare system is broken and that it needs changed, but the changes it needs are not to be found in this motion or in what the Government put before the House last week. Like thousands of my fellow party members, I do not expect that from the Labour party. Last week’s vote was a stain on a great party that should be defending and fighting for the people that this motion seeks to belittle. Improving living standards should be the priority of this Government and every Government, and we are not doing nearly enough—not yet. A year into this Government, what people need is not MPs creating a living standards coalition group; they need them voting in this place to improve living standards, not writing letters about improving living standards. After last week’s vote, which came too late for disabled people, I urge MPs to wake up before making the same mistake again. I urge the Government to resist going down the road of pitting old people against children or children against striking workers, or any of that nonsense. Leave that division and nastiness to other parties that seek to divide and conquer and create inequality.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  More than 100 INEOS chemical employees are to lose their jobs at Grangemouth because the refinery has closed. The £200 million commitment to Project Willow does not help them in the here and now, and it is frankly an insult to the workers who are about to lose their livelihoods to talk about training opportunities at Forth Valley college that are not being afforded to them. What have the Government actually done and what will they do for those workers who do not have the same redundancy or training package as the refinery workers?

• 9 Jul 2025 · Glaucoma Awareness · Hansard source

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  That is not the first time I have heard that. I have another optician friend, who said that that has been a regular occurrence in his career. Someone may not know that they have glaucoma until it is too late. I was prescribed eye drops. I went through a few options, with not much success, until I ended up on three different drops: bimatoprost, brinzolamide and brimonidine. All three go in my left eye at bedtime and then again the next morning, and then just brimonidine in my right eye at bedtime and again the next morning. My right eye needs only one set of drops because it has been operated on. It has had a trabeculectomy—I hope that pronunciation was close enough. The operation was needed to save the eyesight in my right eye. It was an operation under general anaesthetic to make an incision in my eyeball to allow pressure to disperse and not attack my optic nerve. After an overnight stay in hospital, I wore an eye patch for a week, with no bending over for a fortnight and four weeks off work. I had a good report from Dr Cobb, and have had eye drops twice a day and twice-yearly check-ups at hospitals since. I really am lucky. As well as my thanks to my consultant, I want to record my appreciation for my optician, Eddie Russell of Norman Salmoni, who provides regular check-ups between hospital visits, and for the outstanding care that his practice provides. All that goes to show that the NHS really is our greatest invention. Personally, I reject the language of the NHS being broken. It is not broken; it is underfunded. The staff deserve more. They deserve the very best. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to get tested. Testing could be the difference between retaining one’s eyesight and not. I thank hon. Members for permitting me to share a bit about my ongoing glaucoma journey. Glaucoma cannot ever be cured, but we can try to manage the decline somewhat.

• 9 Jul 2025 · Glaucoma Awareness · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I extend my thanks to the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) for securing this important debate. When the time comes, I will welcome an intervention from him to help me pronounce the name of the eye operation that I had, because I can never say it. I often say that all politics is personal, and that is incredibly apt for me in this debate, because 17 years ago, when I was 25, I was diagnosed with glaucoma. Pre-diagnosis, my knowledge of the condition extended to Edgar Davids, the Dutch footballer who wore what looked like safety goggles when playing because he had glaucoma and could not wear contact lenses. Unlike many people’s glaucoma stories, mine is a very fortunate one. Before coming to this place, I was a golf professional. At the time, I was giving lessons to an optician, who offered to gift me a pair of glasses as thanks—I know that sounds a familiar story for a Labour politician, but I move on. He did some tests, including for glaucoma, and commented that my eye pressure was extremely high, in the mid-30s. Within the hour, I was in the ophthalmology clinic at Perth royal infirmary and was diagnosed with glaucoma. Dr Cobb, who became my consultant, saw me at Perth royal that afternoon and has been absolutely incredible ever since. She explained to me that I was very lucky: if I had continued undiagnosed, I would probably have had another decade or so of eyesight and then would have woken up one day, in my mid-30s, unable to see. There would have been nothing she could have done for me; I would have been blind. The glaucoma was totally symptomless, and it is irreversible—those are the real dangers.