Rachel Taylor MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2025 · Animal Welfare Strategy · Hansard source

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  My constituent Bryan Griffiths tells me that trail hunting in Warwickshire is often a smokescreen for illegal hunting, with devastating consequences for livestock. When will the Government start the consultation on the future of trail hunting?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  A very merry Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. My constituent Sam is a fibre engineer. He spends his days climbing ladders, fixing lamp posts and repairing wi-fi for people across north Warwickshire. He has glycogen storage disease type Ia, which is a very rare liver disorder. Despite his GP and hospital consultant telling him that he should have a blood monitor to check his blood sugar levels, Coventry and Warwickshire integrated care board has refused to fund it. Sam has to pay for it himself, at a cost of £100 every month, so that he can continue working. Will the Leader of the House refer my constituent’s case to the Department of Health and Social Care, and enable a debate in Government time on NHS support for people living with rare conditions?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Sugar Beet Contracts · Hansard source

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  3. What steps she is taking to help ensure that British Sugar agrees the terms of future sugar beet contracts with NFU Sugar.

• 18 Dec 2025 · Sugar Beet Contracts · Hansard source

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  A merry Christmas to you and all your staff, Mr Speaker. In the summer I visited Boultbees farm in Baxterley in my constituency, where I met Andrew and his team. Like all farmers who grow sugar beet, they are obliged to sell it to British Sugar, as the sole processor of British sugar beet in the UK. Common market organisation regulation exists to ensure fair negotiations on price, but British Sugar has sought to circumvent it. What are the Government doing to strengthen protections for farmers like Andrew to ensure that they get a fair deal in the combinable crops sector?

• 18 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials · Hansard source

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  For any victim of rape or sexual assault, to wait years for justice to be delivered is horrific. The mental toll on victims, who are unable to see their perpetrators have their day in court, is unimaginable. It is a stain on our justice system. Will the Solicitor General confirm that victims will be kept at the heart of our justice system, and that this Government will deliver timely justice for victims of rape and serious sexual assault?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Puberty Suppressants Trial · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for the care and sensitivity he has taken to this subject all along. It has been an undeniably difficult year for transgender people in Britain. I have spoken to young trans people who have been pushed to the brink of suicide by what they hear—that they do not have a right to exist, that they do not deserve rights, that they are legitimate targets for ridicule. We all in this House have a responsibility to lower the temperature and focus on their welfare, health and dignity. King’s College operates the highest standards of safety. Does the Secretary of State agree that its expertise and rigour will support the wellbeing of participants and ensure that we get the robust evidence we need and that vulnerable children are no longer treated as political punchbags?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the provision of healthcare for transgender people. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. This debate is about healthcare for trans adults. I know that a lot has been said in this House in recent weeks about care for young people questioning their gender identity, and particularly about the recent announcement of a trial of puberty blockers. I do not wish to repeat that debate here, other than to say that I welcome the fact that the trial is going ahead to ensure we can get the evidence that we need. I want to begin with the experience of one of my constituents, because this debate must be about real people, not headlines in The Times or the Daily Mail , not culture war soundbites, not the opinions of Donald Trump or J. K. Rowling, and certainly not whatever bile is being pushed out by transphobic trolls on social media. This is about real people’s lives. Earlier this year, my constituent, a trans woman, came to my surgery to share her experience of accessing healthcare locally. At her GP practice, she was told that she could not use the women’s toilets and must use the men’s instead, and she was repeatedly misgendered by staff. She faced difficulties simply getting her preferred name recorded correctly. On one occasion she was even told that she could not wait in the waiting room because she “scared other patients.” My constituent is also struggling to access the gender-affirming care that she needs. There are no adult gender services in Birmingham, let alone in my constituency of North Warwickshire and Bedworth, meaning that she would have to travel to Nottingham for treatment. She is stuck on a waiting list with no idea when she will finally receive care. Because she cannot get NHS support, she is taking hormone replacement therapy on a private prescription and is understandably anxious about dosage and the lack of monitoring or regulation. She is not alone.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress, if I may. I am part-way through something that a trans person said, so it is not an appropriate time to intervene. They went on to say: “I have personally used alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and self-harm to survive the last year and a half since referral and I have now been told I will have to wait several more months because of the backlog.”

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for sharing that experience. It reflects the reality for many trans young people and adults in the UK: discrimination from healthcare professionals, waiting lists stretching over years, a complete lack of local provision and a reliance on less well-regulated private providers. That is the state of healthcare for trans people in Britain today. It is woeful and inadequate, and it is letting people down. The consequences are serious. Almost one in four transgender people avoid going to the doctor altogether for fear of mistreatment. They delay cancer screenings and push aside chronic pain, and their health outcomes worsen as a result.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his helpful contribution. Of course, parents need help and support through this process. In 2022, a coroner ruled that a 20-year-old trans woman had died in part because of delays in accessing gender-affirming care after two and a half years on a waiting list. Trans people also struggle disproportionately with general healthcare. A third of trans and non-binary people, rising to almost half among people of colour, received no NHS or private support during pregnancy, compared with just 2.4% of cis women. Nearly one in three trans and non-binary birthing parents said that they were not treated with dignity and respect in labour, compared with just 2% of cis women. According to TransActual, 60% of trans people surveyed had been refused care because they were trans. Hundreds reported that their GP refused to prescribe hormones, even when they had been recommended by NHS gender clinics. Participation in cervical screening is also significantly lower, with trans and non-binary people estimated to be up to 37% less likely to be up to date with appointments. This Labour Government are the right Government at the right time to tackle these issues. I congratulate the Minister and the Secretary of State on the HIV action plan that was announced this month. I remember vividly the stigma and shame of an HIV diagnosis in the ’80s and ’90s, which often led to suicide, as the alternative was a death sentence and a life spent facing discrimination and abuse. This HIV strategy is groundbreaking and sets us on the right path to end new HIV transmissions. I applaud its commitment to ensuring that all prevention efforts target underserved populations, including trans people. The Government pledged in their manifesto to ensure that trans people receive the healthcare and support they need. I welcome the review being led by Dr David Levy into adult gender services, and I hope it will bring forward strong recommendations to cut waiting lists, expand access and deliver timely, appropriate and sensitive care. I know that trans people and LGBT organisations have been awaiting its publication, so I ask the Minister: when can we expect Dr Levy’s review to be published? In April 2025, the Secretary of State also commissioned NHS England to undertake an LGBT+ health evidence review. That review seeks to identify the barriers to healthcare for all LGBT+ people, from examining the poor treatment of lesbian couples seeking IVF treatment to looking at insufficient mental health support for LGBT+ people. The review is highly anticipated by the whole community. Therefore, I ask the Minister: is Dr Brady’s review still due to conclude in January 2026, and when can the public and parliamentarians expect to see it? Although I applaud the Government’s work to improve healthcare for transgender adults, I know that reviews alone will not fix the problem. We need to know that these reviews will be followed by action. I know that getting this right matters to the Government, so I ask the Minister: what steps will the Government take to reduce discrimination and transphobia in healthcare settings? Will the Minister commit to mandatory training for clinicians on the respectful and appropriate treatment of trans patients? Will the Government commit to significant sustained investment in trans healthcare, with reducing waiting lists and expanding local provision as urgent priorities? We must build a healthcare system rooted in science, not stigma, and in compassion, not fear. We must decide whether we want to be a society that listens to people, supports them and gives them the tools to thrive. There is one final point I would like to make. Those who know me will know that I first got involved in politics in the 1980s when Thatcher was introducing section 28. That policy was intended to make people like me feel shame about who we were, and to reverse the progress that previous generations had fought for. I got into politics to fight that cruel law and everything that it represented. I am a gay woman who grew up in the ’80s, so I know what it feels like to be told, “It’s just a phase. Maybe you’ll grow out of it. Maybe it’s not really who you are. Maybe there’s just something wrong with you,” so believe me when I say that I have heard it all before. LGBT people have heard this all before. We know what bigotry is when we see it, and we know that bigotry is back. Let us make no mistake: the people who are organising against trans people now are no different from the people who campaigned for section 28. They want to present parts of our movement as a danger to society and push them to the margins. I will never let that happen. To all those in this room and in this House who are totally convinced that trans people are not real, that they are making it up, that it is TikTok, Reddit or foreign TV that has turned them trans, that somehow this is some kind of new phenomenon, let me assure you all that I have had trans friends for as long as I have been out. Trans people have always and will always exist. To all those in this room who used to say warm things about trans people back when it was popular to do so but who decided when the wind changed that they would blow in the other direction, and to the Conservatives who in 2018 introduced an LGBT action plan promising trans equality but who now are quite happy to laugh along with cruel mocking jokes about trans people in front of the mother of a murdered trans teenager, we see you, and much like history condemns section 28, history will condemn you too. Meet trans people, talk to them, understand what they are going through and believe them, then we can all stop fighting our toxic culture wars and get back to doing what we as lawmakers are elected to do: make things better for every single one of our constituents—not some of them, all of them.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Trans people are fearing for their lives in my constituency, in his constituency and in many others up and down this country. Let us imagine being told that the wait for a hip replacement or a cancer check was 224 years—it just would not happen. Some Members in this House might not want to hear it, but the reason that the NHS provides gender-affirming treatments—hormones, surgeries, and mental health and social support—is because they are proven to improve mental health, reduce gender dysphoria and significantly reduce depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Doing nothing is not a neutral act—doing nothing allows suffering to grow. The Women and Equalities Committee heard that directly earlier this year. To echo the findings of the Trevor Project’s 2024 report, LGBTQ+ young people’s suicides are preventable. Prevention means tackling discrimination, hostility and unaccepting environments. Safe, supportive, affirming care saves lives. One trans adult told the LGBT Foundation: “The only effective treatment for gender dysphoria is transition and leaving this untreated is killing people.”

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I thank everyone who has spoken in this debate, and all my hon. Friends, for their passion, care, advocacy, understanding, kind words and leadership in this area. The tone of the debate has proved that we can, away from the glare of culture wars, have a sensitive and nuanced discussion about how to guarantee care for some of our most vulnerable citizens and how to support their families. I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade), for her understanding and clarity of thought; she is a strong advocate. I also thank the spokesperson for the Green party, the hon. Member for Bristol Central (Carla Denyer). I thank the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson), for coming here divested of some of the toxic and inflammatory zeal, even though she seemed more concerned about the small number of people who are detransitioning rather than about all trans people and their healthcare. Most of all, I thank the Minister for her remarks. I welcome her commitment to first-class healthcare for everyone. I welcome the Brady review reporting early in the new year, including the fact that there will be between seven and 12 healthcare centres for young trans people, with more clinics to come around the corner. I also very much welcome her Waiting Well pilot and hope that it can be rolled out across the country. I want to finish by broadening out this discussion. This has not been an easy year for trans people. The Supreme Court judgment and the misguided, unnecessary interim guidance that followed from the Equality and Human Rights Commission have created genuine fear that rights long enjoyed are now at risk. We have heard today about the poor state of healthcare for trans people in this country, and flawed guidance risks making that situation worse. I have heard from trans and non-binary people who have developed urinary tract infections because they feared going to the toilet. There is no doubt that the toxic culture wars have the potential—

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  As I welcome services for trans people, I also welcome services for those people who do not feel happy in the gender that they have acquired. That is only right, but we have to get all those services right. Trans people are now seeing their health outcomes worsen. Waiting times for gender-affirming healthcare are nothing short of a national scandal. Across the UK as of March 2025, more than 48,000 trans adults remained on waiting lists for that care. We rightly debate NHS waiting lists in this place: a year for a hip replacement; months for cancer screening. Nobody finds those waits acceptable, but freedom of information requests reveal that the average wait for gender services is 12 years in England, two years in Wales, 41 years in Northern Ireland and a staggering 58 years in Scotland. At one Scottish clinic, the wait was three times longer than the average British life expectancy.

• 11 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I got the chance to do some essential Christmas shopping on small business Saturday last week. I bought cakes from Gayton’s and a wreath from the Flower House, and I managed to get in my Christmas turkey order at Bates in Atherstone. Can the Minister tell us what extra support he will provide to small retail businesses in North Warwickshire and Bedworth and across the country?

• 11 Dec 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The last Saturday in November in Atherstone is marked by our wonderful Dickens night. It is always brilliant to see my home town so busy. There are stalls, the Christmas lights are switched on, and Santa in his grotto; Arthur Stone, our town mascot, is walking around; and then there is a firework finale. These events would never happen without the hours of work put in by volunteers like Dave and the Dickens night committee. Would the Leader of the House consider joining us next year for Dickens night, and would he make time for a debate on the importance of volunteering?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Resident Doctors: Industrial Action · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for all his work on this matter so far, but I know that people in my constituency are going to be really worried about what might happen to them over the Christmas period. I thank all those hard-working NHS staff, be they nurses or doctors, who have continued to look after us and are facing a really difficult situation over this Christmas. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to urge the BMA to call off this strike and, in doing so, will he commit to continuing that dialogue with the profession so that it knows that he really understands the challenges it faces, the training opportunities it needs and the job opportunities it deserves?

• 4 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T9. To support transport operators in North Warwickshire and Bedworth, what discussions has the Minister had with EU counterparts on securing a professional driver exemption from the 90/180-day Schengen travel restrictions for UK drivers of heavy goods vehicles and coaches?

• 3 Dec 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q3. I am really pleased to hear many constituents tell me how much local NHS services have improved since this Labour Government entered office, but some, such as David Wootton from Atherstone, have faced long delays. He was told that he would have to wait five months for X-ray results from George Eliot hospital—and he is not the only one. My constituents deserve better. Will the Prime Minister set out how he will go further and faster to get our NHS fighting fit again?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Cyber-attacks: Global Response · Hansard source

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  The past year has seen cyber-attacks on some of our biggest household names, including Jaguar Land Rover, putting jobs and livelihoods in my constituency of North Warwickshire and Bedworth at risk. What action is the Minister taking with the UK’s partners overseas to tackle this growing threat, both in our country and throughout the world?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Cyber-attacks: Global Response · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she is taking with international partners to help improve the global response to cyber-attacks and ransomware.

• 27 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Residents of Water Orton in my constituency have been plagued by HS2 works for years. Dust covering their cars and washing and now a really disgusting fishy smell are just some of the problems they are having to put up with. My constituents have told me that this is affecting their health. I have been raising this issue with HS2 since I was elected. Residents in Water Orton have been put through unacceptable levels of disruption. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on the impact of HS2 works on local residents’ health?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey (Rachel Reeves) for delivering a Budget with fairness and action to tackle the cost of living at its core, and one that will make work pay. Having sat through this debate for about eight hours, it is interesting to observe that Members on the Labour Benches are giving a voice to those vulnerable children living in poverty, while those on the Conservative Benches are simply standing up for those who own mansions. That is the difference. I am pleased to see that around 1,990 children in my constituency of North Warwickshire and Bedworth and nearly half a million children across the country have been lifted out of poverty, and that the degrading rape clause has been removed from child benefit. That will be the biggest change a Government have ever made to child poverty in a Parliament and it is the right thing to do for children. I know that everyone in my area will be pleased to see the £150 off their energy bills too. That is the difference our Labour Government are making to the cost of living for ordinary families. In a coalfield community such as mine, we carry immense pride in our heritage. Standing up for former mineworkers in North Warwickshire and Bedworth is personal to me. My grandad Bill was a miner at Birch Coppice, and I grew up understanding the dignity, sacrifice and solidarity that defined that way of life. That is why I am delighted that the Government have taken the long-awaited decision to return the British Coal staff superannuation scheme surplus to its members. The last Government allowed that injustice to continue for far too long. I have campaigned tirelessly for that measure, alongside my colleagues who represent coalfield communities and have lobbied hard for the Government to do right by BCSSS members. I am immensely proud that this Government have listened to the voices of my constituents who were impacted by that unfairness. Earlier this year, I held an event for BCSSS members in my constituency. Ray Sweet, Andy Callow, Don Jennings and others shared with me the years they spent working in and around our mines. I am delighted to be able to tell them that they will finally receive the full pension they worked so hard for. I also met a woman who joined the National Coal Board at 16. She worked for years from 5.30 am to late in the day to ensure mineworkers got paid on time and at the end of their shift. Women like her, who supported the mining industry behind the scenes, have often gone unrecognised and underappreciated. I hope they now feel the recognition they have long been owed and the nation’s gratitude for their work to keep our lights on and our homes warm. I know that for many this comes too late, and I remember them too. I thank the Chancellor for abolishing the bingo tax. I visited Palace Bingo in Bedworth last week and met the owners, Pete, Donna and Paul, who took over the family business. It was great to see the investment they have made; there are new toilet facilities there has been a total renovation. They provide safe entertainment for hundreds of people every day of the week in Bedworth, and I know how much people in my constituency enjoy a good night out at the bingo, as do I. It is right that they are exempted from bingo tax, and that online gambling pays the price for the harm it causes. Finally, I have listened carefully to farmers in my constituency. They know that I have passed on their concerns to the Treasury, so I am pleased to hear the Treasury’s small concessions. I want to reassure the residents of North Warwickshire and Bedworth that this Government are on their side. For all my constituents, I am feeling positive. There is work to be done, but this Budget will continue to bring the change that we promised at the general election. The damage left by 14 years of austerity is finally being undone. This Labour Budget is putting money in the pockets of those who need it most, delivering healthcare for everyone, providing opportunities for young people, unlocking growth, delivering new homes, reducing energy bills, reducing business rates for hospitality and retail, putting more money in people’s pockets to spend in local businesses, giving us pride in our towns and powering our future. That is the difference a Labour Government can make.

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Gentleman seems to care so much about those who are not in education, employment or training, why did he allow 88,000 young people to become NEETs, and is he proud that when he left office, almost 1 million young people were not in any form of employment, education or training? Is this not the worst kind of hypocrisy?