Rachel Taylor MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady speaks with great passion. Does she agree that members in the other place bringing forward amendments such as suggesting that women who had been through the menopause, or men, needed to have a pregnancy test before they could be eligible for an assisted death, was a deliberate attempt to wreck the Bill, as opposed to undertaking their important role of scrutiny?

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way on that point?

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that unless this House makes it absolutely clear that it is outrageous and unacceptable for a very small number of unelected peers to block legislation, supported by the elected Chamber, then the same tactic could be used again with any private Member’s Bill that comes forward in this House?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for giving way and the tone in which she is conducting this debate. Would she feel more comfortable, however, if a transgender man with balding hair and a full beard, who was behaving like a man and full of testosterone, was attending a female toilet facility at night at a motorway service station? I would not feel safe, but it seems she would feel safer in that situation than she would with a trans woman getting changed in front of nurses or attending a toilet.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Surrogacy Law and Legal Parenthood · Hansard source

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  I would like to make some progress, and the hon. Lady has made a number of points in her own speech and in other interventions. Same-sex couples, disabled mums or mums who simply cannot have children have gone through an incredibly demanding process to start a family, and their family is treated differently from the moment their child is born. They can be left in limbo for months while social workers carry out assessments and family courts, with already massively long delays, consider their application for a parental order. That leaves them in limbo if their child is ill, taken into hospital, starts nursery school, or any number of things. Meanwhile, they are changing nappies, comforting their baby through all the sleepless nights and making every decision about their care. Families should not be penalised because of the gender or sexuality of the people who love and raise that child. Our surrogacy laws are more than 40 years old. Families have changed and society has changed; the law must now change too. That is why the Law Commission’s proposals are so important. They set out a new pathway through which intended parents could be recognised as legal parents from birth, rather than waiting for months to obtain a parental order. The work has been done, the evidence has been gathered and a draft Bill has already been produced. Will the Minister listen to the families who have shared their experiences, publish the Government’s full response to the Law Commission’s report and set out a clear timetable for reform? Adam and Jamie became dads the moment they held their daughter. It is time the law recognised that reality.