Calum Miller MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

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  On Thursday, I received a message from Mohammed, an NHS doctor with family in Gaza. He wrote: “My 16-year-old nephew was missing for five days after heading out to retrieve humanitarian aid at a location announced by Israeli forces. We found him dead yesterday; his body mutilated, eaten by stray dogs. He died alone. No one could reach him or others like him in time. He was only a boy who desperately wanted to get food for his starving family.” On 10 June, the Minister sanctioned two Israeli Ministers who advocated for the blockade of Gaza, noting that that would not remove Hamas or ensure that the hostages were released. But nothing has changed. What further steps are the Government taking today to signal to the Government of Israel that the UK will not stand idly by while children in Gaza are starved, denied medicine or killed as they seek food for their families?

• 20 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. As she knows, the leading experts in palliative care have come out to oppose the Bill, and they point to the fact that hospices are underfunded and do not have the same ability to serve patients. I therefore gently question whether we are in a position today to make a judgment that patients truly would have a choice at the end of life.

• 20 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 13 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I rise to speak in support of amendments 21, 103, 104 and 42, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) and my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler). As other Members have said, this is a deeply consequential Bill. I want to record my thanks to the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), to all members of the Bill Committee, and to all those who have contributed to its careful scrutiny through the tabling of amendments and debates over them. The Bill is about the end of life. It is an emotive and sometimes painful topic, and I am grateful to the many constituents who have generously shared with me their experiences and opinions. I have also taken some time to consult palliative care practitioners, including those providing hospice care in my constituency. Those conversations reinforced the awe and admiration I hold for these caring professionals. Their expertise and deep commitment are always impressive. Contrary to the points made by the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage), they are adamant that they can provide sufficient pain relief to the vast majority of those receiving end-of-life care. The issue is about not the efficacy of treatment, but access to it. In this, I echo the powerful points of the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Blair McDougall) on the present inequality of access to palliative care. Amendment 21 would ensure that the availability, quality and distribution of palliative and end-of-life care is published within one year of the Act being passed. When assessing the provision of end-of-life care, it is critical that this House and the public can see how palliative care is being delivered. For the measures in the Bill to provide a genuine choice to those at end of life, palliative care must be much more widely available. The hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) argues that there should be no false choice between palliative care and assisted dying, yet she and health Ministers know that there is a choice as resources are limited. When so many hospices have closed beds due to funding shortages and receive more than 70% of their funding from donations, I am concerned that we may see significant expenditures on a new regime for assisted dying, funded by the state as a health treatment, while the palliative care sector and hospices in particular remain chronically underfunded.

• 13 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not give way. Only by having the assessment of the palliative care system that is proposed in amendment 21 can we be confident of knowing whether access to palliative care is sufficient. If we are to provide a true choice at end of life, that is critical. I also stand in support of amendments 103, 104 and 42. Amendments 103 and 104 would give this House a say over the key decisions that still remain to be taken on the implementation of the Bill. Given the significance of the Bill and the importance of the many questions still to be resolved, these amendments are critical. Amendment 42 would ensure that we do not career towards the enactment of this Bill in four years whether or not the system is ready to operate safely and fairly. Taken together with amendments 21, 103 and 104, this would ensure that this House has the chance to consider whether those at end of life can access the full range of support, advice and protections intended by the Bill, and which they deserve from palliative care services across the country. Like so many in this House, I have direct personal experience of the issues addressed by the Bill. My father was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in May 2002. Over seven weeks, he and my family benefited from the incredible care of our local hospice. Sharing my dad’s life, care and death has shaped me, so I fully understand why so many of my constituents have asked me to vote on this legislation in the light of their and their loved ones’ experience. Yet our task is to legislate for a new system that will affect thousands of people and society as a whole. However this House votes on this Bill, our debates must result in a new focus on the provision of palliative care, so that all people at end of life truly have options in the management of their care and death.

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

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  I am grateful to the Minister for advance sight of his statement. I spoke yesterday with a British surgeon who has regularly visited Gaza to deliver emergency medical aid. He first reported cases of malnutrition 18 months ago and is deeply anxious about what he will find when he arrives at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza later this month. People in Gaza are on the brink of starvation. Others are dying daily from gunshot wounds inflicted as they queue for food. The situation is intolerable, and it is deliberate. The policies of Netanyahu’s Government amount to an indiscriminate assault on the Palestinian people. We must get the aid in, we must get the hostages out and we must stop the violent forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and in the west bank. That is the only path back to a ceasefire. The time for timidity is over. Liberal Democrats have consistently called for the Government to take firmer action, and they must do so today. We called for the sanctioning of the extremist Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich 18 months ago. Will the Minister finally commit to implementing those sanctions, showing that we will no longer tolerate calls for Palestinian dispossession? Will the Government make it clear that unless the Israeli Government change course, the UK will expand sanctions to those Ministers and Members of the Knesset who support a continuation of the blockade and the current military action? Will the Government finally ban the export of all UK arms to Israel? In his response earlier, the Prime Minister said that the Government were working with allies to get aid into Gaza. Can the Minister expand on what options are under consideration and when they could be implemented? Last week’s announcement of 22 new settlements in the west bank—the largest expansion in years—is intolerable. The UK should have no part in this, so will Ministers introduce legislation now to ban all UK trade with the illegal settlements? Will the Government use the conference later this month, together with allies such as France, finally to recognise the state of Palestine, showing beyond doubt the UK’s commitment to Palestinians’ right to self-determination and a two-state solution?

• 19 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the youthful Secretary of State for giving way. In the past few months, I have had a number of constituents describe the difficulties they have had in transitioning from care provided by child and adolescent mental health services to adult mental health services—a critical transition. They specifically faced difficulties in accessing the same medication when they turned 18 that they had previously been reliant on as young people. Can the Secretary of State describe to me how either the Bill or the change in culture for which he is advocating will improve the situation for people like my constituents?

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  The Minister referred to the capital needs of the NHS as a whole. As my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) mentioned, that applies to many GP surgeries too. In my constituency, we have rapid growth in population. The populations of Woodstock, Heyford Park and Bicester are struggling, because GPs want to expand, but they cannot access the money to do so. Will the Minister look urgently at releasing more funds through integrated care boards so that future revenue can be provided to allow for the capital investment that would give my constituents an expansion in GP surgeries and take some pressure off our much-pressurised hospitals?

• 24 Mar 2025 · Support for Veterans · Hansard source

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  I recently visited the Heyford and Bicester veterans group in my constituency, which was set up by Ian Ridley to support fellow veterans throughout the region. This fantastic initiative brings together a range of services from charities, the NHS and local authorities to support veterans. However, when speaking to Ian, I was amazed to discover that the group receives no funding from the MOD, and that veterans in our region are not signposted to its services when they leave the armed forces. I therefore invite the Minister to visit the group with me and see the work that it does, so that we can discuss how to make it more routine for services such as those that it offers to be made available to our fantastic veterans.

• 4 Mar 2025 · Gaza · Hansard source

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  The Israeli Government are wrong to prevent humanitarian aid entering Gaza. That threatens the lives of Gazans who are dependent on aid after the destruction of the past 15 months, and is a clear breach of international humanitarian law. What practical steps are the Government taking to ensure that the Israeli Government back down and let that aid in? I understand the depth of distress in Israel about the despicable way that Hamas terrorists have played psychological games with the hostages and their families, but withholding essential supplies of food, medicine and shelter only worsens the devastation faced by the Palestinian people. In the west bank, we also see illegal settlers violently attacking Palestinians and apparently receiving the support of members of the Israeli Cabinet. Does the Minister agree that we in the UK must do all we can to undermine the extremists in this conflict, so that a second phase of the ceasefire can be negotiated, all hostages can be released, and Gazans can receive the aid that they desperately need?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  I thank the Prime Minister for his statement, and for his leadership. He will have heard the support of the Liberal Democrats, and of many others on both sides of the House, for his leadership in Europe and his correct identification of Russia as the threat in this scenario. Having referred earlier to the Russian cyber-threat to the NHS, among other things, does he share my concern about the fact that, overnight, United States Defence Secretary Hegseth has announced the stepping back of US counter-cyber measures against Russia? Does he believe that that is a good choice by the Americans?

• 25 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The whole House will be shocked to learn the worrying news that the mother of British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Laila Soueif, was admitted to St Thomas’ hospital last night. She is 68 years old and has been on hunger strike now for 149 days. Will the Foreign Secretary update us on whether the Prime Minister has spoken to the Egyptian President to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah and allow Laila to break her strike?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q6. Agnes lives in my Bicester and Woodstock constituency. In 2019, when she was nine, she was referred by her GP to child and adolescent mental health services. Agnes has had to wait more than five years for an assessment for the neurodiversity that has caused her crushing mental health problems. Last year, when Agnes’s dad, Jim, sought to accelerate her appointment, he was told that CAMHS could not see her or prioritise her appointment“unless Agnes is actively trying to kill herself.”Jim asked me to raise this case because he wants to ensure that no other child goes through the same experience as his daughter. Will the Prime Minister meet Agnes, Jim and me to hear their story?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Northern Gaza · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) for her powerful and sustained advocacy for Palestinians. Clearly, the situation in northern Gaza is utterly dire. We need to see action from the Government in the face of a dreadful and worsening situation. At the end of December, Israeli forces closed Kamal Adwan, the last functional hospital in northern Gaza, forcibly removed patients and detained its director Dr Abu Safiya. The Minister said that he has raised this matter with the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister and the ambassador, but what consequences did he spell out to them if Israel fails to meet its obligations to protect civilians and sustain access to healthcare in northern Gaza? The Minister also referred to Israeli airstrikes in the allegedly safe zone. I have on previous occasions asked the Foreign Secretary to look again at a full ban on arms sales. Will the Minister now do so? We will only see an end to violence with a ceasefire, so can the Minister update the House on progress towards the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and a lasting ceasefire? Finally, in the light of deep concerns about the direction that this conflict might take under the second Trump presidency and following remarks made by Israeli Government Ministers about annexation and actions on the ground in the west bank to extend illegal settlements, does the Minister agree that now is the moment to recognise Palestine on the 1967 borders?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Access to Primary Care · Hansard source

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  Woodstock surgery in my constituency is not fit for purpose. In September, heavy rain fell and caused the roof to collapse, causing the surgery to close. The nurse literally sees patients in a broom cupboard. The GPs want to increase their capacity to see more patients, but have been unable to access sufficient capital from the integrated care board. Will the Secretary of State meet me and the Woodstock GPs to discuss how the reforms announced yesterday will help them build a new surgery, so that they can see patients faster?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am sure the Secretary of State will share my shock and anger about the number of young people in my constituency who are waiting more than four years for a first assessment by child and adult mental health services. Can he confirm that yesterday’s commitment by the Prime Minister that patients would not wait more than 18 weeks for a first appointment will apply to CAMHS in Oxfordshire?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Children’s Social Care · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome today’s statement from the Secretary of State. As a county councillor in Oxfordshire, the number of children in our care who are living in unregistered children’s homes is of grave concern to me. Those homes are often overpriced and always suboptimal for vulnerable children, as well as being strictly illegal. I heard what the Secretary of State had to say about the local authority settlement next month. Will she undertake to work with the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor to allocate some of the capital investment announced in the Budget, so that local authorities can open new registered children’s homes and provide safer and more affordable accommodation closer to home for vulnerable young people?

• 22 Oct 2024 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

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  The attack saw “more than four, five residential blocks...razed to the ground. Some…reached the hospital, some…remain under the rubble.” That is the account of Dr Eid Sabbah of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, which he gave to the BBC yesterday. I have noted the Minister’s qualified response earlier, but as the UN special envoy for the peace process warns that “nowhere is safe in Gaza”, does she agree that the UK should now cease all arms exports to Israel?