Rachel Taylor MP: speeches

Speeches

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  In 1986, I went to my first ever Pride. It is hard to believe, but that was nearly 40 years ago. I remember being struck by how much of a celebration and a protest it was. I remember how important it was to be visible. I felt proud of who I was for the first time. I hope people feel that this year when they attend their first Pride event. I could not have predicted what was to happen just two years later. In 1988, section 28 was enacted. That year, I attended Pride alongside many angry and distraught friends. I remember section 28 vividly. It was more than a law: it was an attack on the right of people like me to live openly. It stigmatised lesbians, gays and bisexual people. It pushed us out of public life. I got into politics to fight that cruel law and everything it represented. The 1988 Pride was a protest. It was a reminder that LGBT people have always and will always exist, and we deserve to live our lives publicly and with dignity. My friends and I walked down the streets of London and made sure we were heard. We refused to be silent. This Labour Government have pledged to ban conversion therapy. Last week in the House, I encouraged the Government to fulfil their manifesto commitment. I made the case for aggravated offences to be treated the same for all people, regardless of what kind of hate it is. All hate should be treated the same. I was proud to see our Government reaffirm that that would be the case. Britain is a country that will not tolerate hate. All hatred is equal and all those who commit vile acts of hatred will face the same grave consequences. Today, I am concerned that the progress made by previous Labour Governments has been eroded. We are seeing rising transphobia everywhere and I, for one, will not stand for it. Pride flags are being taken down at county halls, and only last year an advertisement for my local Pride on social media was met with the response, “Gas the lot of them.” It is a reminder to all of us this Pride Month that we must stand together with trans people and reject transphobia with the same anger and passion that we rejected homophobia all those years ago. I will continue to stand proudly with all members of the LGBT community and our allies this Pride Month as we celebrate and protest.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am concerned by reports on social media that a disabled person in a wheelchair in Bedworth was stranded because their bus did not show up and several taxis refused to take a wheelchair. I am sick and tired of hearing how my vulnerable constituents are let down by Warwickshire’s buses, which is why I launched my petition to bring buses back into public control. We must look at the issues facing disabled people when using transport. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on access to taxis for people using wheelchairs?

• 6 Feb 2025 · Financial Education · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) for securing the debate and for his valuable work on the all-party parliamentary group on financial education for young people. One of my first jobs was working in advice services. Time and time again, people came to us for help after they had stacked up debt. Many people had the same story. It started out with not having a household budget and having to borrow on credit cards or through payday loans on astronomical rates of interest, and eventually they became caught in a spiral of debt and bad decision making. I would like to thank the wonderful staff and volunteers at the Citizens Advice service in my constituency, who do fantastic work trying to help people to get back on their feet after problems with debt. Work by BRANCAB —Bedworth, Rugby and Nuneaton Citizens Advice—and North Warwickshire Citizens Advice demonstrates that debt has changed for people in my constituency. Instead of loans and credit cards, the components of debt have moved, worryingly, to basic housing and utility costs. Before covid, financial capability was at the heart of what BRANCAB did and it won a national award for its work, until a lack of funding put an end to it. My area has the fifth highest rate of insolvencies per 10,000 adults in the country, and 18 to 24-year-olds account for 12% of all insolvencies. This is why financial education is so crucial. Becoming insolvent before the age of 24 will have untold effects on their financial stability for years to come and we need to stop more young people falling into that hole. I support the recommendations of the Education Committee to review the content of the maths curriculum to expand the provision and relevance of financial education. That sentiment is shared by teachers at Polesworth school in my constituency. I support the work done by people such as Rob Boland, who runs Cotswold Independent Financial Services and works with the Personal Finance Society, which carries out important educational work around budgeting and tax, and staying safe from scams. It is staggering that I have people coming to my surgery who have well-paid jobs but had no idea when they went to university about the impact of the debt they were signing up to with their student loan, or even what the interest rate meant. We must also recognise that our young people face new challenges. Social media has fuelled a get-rich-quick mindset, with influencers encouraging young people to try to make money quickly through risky schemes. That is exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. Perhaps if Liz Truss had spent a bit more time in financial education classes when she was at her grammar school in Leeds she would not have plunged the country into economic disaster. Too often we forget that our young people were hit hard by the crisis and are still suffering from financial insecurity. I met sixth-form students at Nicholas Chamberlaine school in Bedworth recently. They talked to me about how much more difficult it was to find work at the weekends or in the evenings, and how they had never received any kind of education or help around personal finances. I am pleased that the Government have commissioned an expert-led curriculum and assessment review to ensure that young people leave school ready for work and ready for life. That, I know, is welcomed by local businesses in my constituency. It is time that we demystified everyday finances, so that everyone can be equipped with the skills they need for everyday life and do not have to turn to an advice service for help.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Young Drivers · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond—I miss our Tuesday morning meetings. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) for securing the debate. I am speaking because road safety for young drivers is a crucial issue in my constituency. My constituency is semi-rural, and learning to drive is a huge part of becoming independent from one’s parents; indeed, my parents forced me to learn to drive at the age of 17 because they did not want to drive me around any more. Local transport links are not good enough: buses do not run regularly enough or late enough for young people to rely on them in order to play sport, go to college, see friends or visit local town centres at weekends. By the age of 17, many of my constituents want to be able to drive to school without having to rely on their parents. Unfortunately, that also means that my constituency has far too many tragic accidents involving young drivers. In 2000, four teenagers died after Adam, a 17-year-old newly qualified driver, crashed his car. Adam, Jonathon, Craig and James were planning to celebrate the birthday of one of their friends just a few hours after Adam crashed. An inquest found that defects in the vehicle’s condition, tyre pressure imbalance and a comparative lack of driving experience were contributing factors to Adam’s crash. In 2017, Trudi-Mae Kennell, Ryan Barber and Will Louch died on a journey back from Snowdonia to Atherstone and an unnamed 18-year-old was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Most recently, in 2024, a teenage boy suffered serious head injuries after his car hit a tree and caught fire in Polesworth. It was reported as miraculous that he survived the crash. All those young people had so much ahead of them, and it is sad to see that their crashes belong to a pattern. There is so much discussion about what policies to propose to tackle this issue, but the first must be to push for our young people to wear seatbelts. Between 2019 and 2023, 16% of younger car drivers involved in serious collisions did not wear seatbelts. We need to make sure that our young people know that if they do not feel confident driving with passengers, they should not do so. We need to make sure that before passing a driving test, young people have experience of driving in the dark and with passengers. And we need to make sure we, as adults, challenge risky driving behaviour whenever we see it.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Puberty-suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  Today will be a difficult day for trans young people, not because of the Secretary of State’s statement, but because of how our media might choose to portray what has been announced in the House. I welcome the remarks of the shadow Secretary of State, and I hope that we can take things forward together. I know that one of my constituents will be upset, but will reflect on this with his mum, who has been supporting him. He was referred by his GP for gender dysphoria when he was in year 8. He has still not been seen by a specialist, and he is now in his first year doing his A-levels. He has had to endure going through periods, and suffering at school with the embarrassment of that. He decided to stop eating and was diagnosed with anorexia because that was the only way that he felt he could stop his periods and stop his breasts growing. Those are the kinds of things that trans young people go through day in, day out. Three and a half years later, it is not good enough that he has still not been seen by a medical professional. He is in the west midlands, which is one of the areas where we are not yet announcing that specialist services will be extended. I welcome the gravity with which the Secretary of State has dealt with this matter. In particular, he responded to me when I asked him to meet trans young people, which he has done. I hope that we can move forward together and improve the mental health of all our young people. We must take this issue seriously and work together, rather than make this into a culture war.

• 12 Nov 2024 · Tackling Image-based Abuse · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for bringing the issue to Westminster’s attention and giving us the opportunity to debate it. I place on the record my interest as another member of the Women and Equalities Committee. We must also do better to protect male victims who reach out to the Revenge Porn Helpline. It is time we prioritised victims. We must not let technology develop without the necessary safeguards to protect us all from harm. I was alarmed to hear last week that online platforms do not take images down while they are reviewing their harmfulness; that practice simply exacerbates the harm that victims face. It is vital we ensure that image-based abuse does not get lost in the excitement of this Government’s new, packed legislative agenda. It is time that the legislation recognised adult non-consensual intimate images as illegal content, in the same way that abusive images of children are so considered. The Online Safety Act 2023—

• 10 Oct 2024 · Sport: Team GB and ParalympicsGB · Hansard source

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  What a privilege and pleasure it is to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), with whom, I am sorry to say, I share a preference for cream teas. I am very proud to have one of the world’s best golf courses in my constituency—the Belfry. I was delighted to join those at the course recently at the British Open to talk about its work in encouraging young people into golf. I am privileged to co-chair the all-party parliamentary group for sport; I have taken over from my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater). One of my aims will be to ensure that we work with sporting bodies and organisations to push for more people to become physically active, and for more people to be given the opportunity to enjoy playing sport in their local communities and at the highest level. We have had a brilliant summer of sport, with Team GB ending the Paris Olympics and Paralympics with more medals than ever. In my sport of tennis, which my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins) spoke about so eloquently, British players did so well at the US Open. I am so proud of our Paralympic and Olympic athletes. They are role models and an inspiration to our young people. I also know, though, that each one of them will have been supported by an encouraging grassroots club or organisation. Without such clubs, accessible playing grounds and courts, and referees and coaches who encourage grassroots players to become professional athletes, we would not have the incredible set of athletes of whom the country is so proud. For that reason, I congratulate everyone who contributed to the success of our Paralympic and Olympic teams—the athletes, coaches, friends, families and officials. Sport has incredible potential to open new doors for young people and break down barriers to opportunity. Every child should have the chance to find a sport that they enjoy, to thrive and grow in confidence, and to learn valuable teamworking skills. It is essential that sport forms a key part of a broad curriculum. Since 2011, the Youth Sport Trust has found that the number of hours of PE taught in secondary schools has fallen by 13%, but sport is not just important for young people and professional athletes; it is a way for adults to keep healthy, and to create friendships throughout their lives by watching and participating in it. That is why it is a massive concern that the latest Active Lives survey found that activity is less common in older people, women and those with a disability. One third of adults in the UK do not meet the chief medical officer’s minimum requirements for physical activity levels. Almost a third of our children and young people are considered inactive, meaning that 2.3 million children and young people do less than 30 minutes of activity each week. Sport England has found that children and young people from the least affluent families remain the least active, and are falling further and further behind. Sport is a form of social mobility. It allows young people to build teamworking skills and relationships with people from all walks of life. The Government must ensure that children are able to access sport on the curriculum and in their local communities. That means investment in our local sports facilities, more lighting for outdoor facilities, and the renovation of old leisure centres such as the one in Atherstone in my constituency. I was delighted a couple of weeks ago to put spades in the ground for the new physical activity hub in Bedworth. In my experience as a player of county-level tennis, I have seen how the LTA has ensured that a variety of tennis options are available for people of all abilities. That includes wheelchair tennis, tennis for those with learning disabilities and visually impaired and deaf people, and para-standing and walking tennis. Those modifications demonstrate how every sport can become more inclusive, so long as we encourage organisations to have inclusivity as their priority. As a line judge and umpire at grassroots level and at Wimbledon, I know all too well that we need committed volunteers at every level of sport, from our junior and local events through to the highest level of sport at international events. There has been a pathway of training and support for those giving up their time, and it is essential that we continue that. Yesterday was a sad day—to find out that line judges at Wimbledon were being replaced by machines. Hopefully my role in this House will not meet the same end.

• 4 Sept 2024 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Sport has played an essential role in economic growth in Scotland. What steps will the Secretary of State take to ensure that the legacy of Sir Andy Murray is recognised in Scotland?