Speeches by Abbott.

“3. What steps she is taking to ban conversion practices.”

“As the Minister says, conversion therapy is dangerous, widely discredited and frankly barbaric, and it is about time we got rid of it. Suffolk Pride’s fringe festival starts next month with Pride Blooms. I ask the Minister to make a powerful statement today, and to say that this terrible practice will end under the Lab…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and completely agree with him. I have focused much of my speech on the lack of specialist care in Ipswich, but the postcode lottery is affecting people and communities across the United Kingdom, including in Northern Ireland.”

“I thank the Minister for her detailed speech. I look forward to working with her over the coming months and years on these important issues. I thank everybody who has contributed and shared not just the experiences of their constituents—as awful and harrowing as they often are—but some deeply personal stories. It is no…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered access to endometriosis services. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I welcome my hon. Friend the Minister to her place. Many people will recognise that she is a long-time champion of women and women’s health, so it is especially fitting that she is…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and could not agree more. For women with endometriosis who may have already waited years for a GP even to mention the word, and who have already been utterly failed by institutionalised and deeply structural medical misogyny, this is a complete dereliction of duty. The human cost of inaction is d…”

“Allegedly—I think I did say that, and I apologise if I did not use that word, Mr Twigg, but that is what our Crown prosecutors have charged him with. It is terrifying that many young boys look at someone like him as a potential role model. I do not believe that there are no role models out there—the hon. Member for Hin…”

“I am delighted to do that. I know that my hon. Friend is a great mum to her little children. I will come to the really important issues that she highlights later in my speech. As has been said, we need co-ordinated, well-funded action across Departments, across Government and across our country. We must confront the re…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) for securing this debate and for his ongoing commitment to tackling the challenges facing men and boys. Let me begin with the reality in my constituency. As has been said, some of the inequ…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker) for securing this important debate. This issue comes up repeatedly with my local residents, who want to feel safe in our town—whether that is walking, shopping, eating or enjoying public spaces. Wo…”

“I was actually referring to the number of Opposition Members defending this policy here today. I do not think there is a single person in the country who will defend keeping hundreds of thousands more children in poverty. That is what we are getting rid of today, and that is what the hon. Gentleman’s party is defending…”

“It is true to say that the Conservative party has been right about one thing today: this is about choices, and I am incredibly proud to be making the one that we are making. The Conservative party did untold damage to our country, whether it was in hollowing out the criminal justice system, crumbling school buildings a…”

“It is a pleasure to speak in support of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill. This Bill goes to the very heart of the future of our national health service—the doctors on whom our health service depends. It is about fairness, protecting taxpayers’ money, and building a home-grown NHS workforce that is sustainable…”

“I welcome this really significant additional support for pubs and music venues, on top of the £4.3 billion given to the wider sector at the Budget. I thank the Minister for all the conversations that he has had with me over the last few weeks, and I also thank Dan and Ness from the Greyhound, who have engaged so positi…”

“I thank the Minister for his genuinely groundbreaking statement. It feels like a little while ago that he visited Ipswich to talk to local people about the building safety crisis and leasehold. He was a shadow Minister and I was a parliamentary candidate at the time. Now we are capping ground rents, making it easier to…”

“It is a privilege to speak in this debate on the Armed Forces Bill. Every five years, Parliament is asked to renew its consent for the maintenance of our armed forces in peacetime. That constitutional requirement, dating back to the Bill of Rights in 1688, is more than a procedural necessity; it is about Parliament ren…”

“I warmly welcome the Home Secretary’s statement. I would like to highlight two Government initiatives—Clear, Hold, Build and Operation Machinize—with our hard-working police force that are making a real difference in Ipswich. I can see parallels with some of the proposals that the Home Secretary has laid out for local …”

“T8. This week has been an incredibly good one for jobs, investment and opportunity in Ipswich. Halo, one of the biggest tech firms in the UK, is moving its global HQ into the centre of town and creating 1,000 jobs, many of them for graduates. Sizewell C has unveiled plans for a new bus depot, which will create 400 jobs…”

“My hon. Friend is completely right. What I was just about to say encapsulates what my hon. Friend says: stability at home underpins readiness, retention and morale. Readiness itself is another core theme of the Bill. In an increasingly uncertain world, with evolving threats, rapid technological change and heightened gl…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point; there is a balancing act to be achieved, ensuring that we have the size and scale of councils to deliver public services efficiently, while also rooting them in their local communities. That is why I am backing a proposal for three unitary councils over the proposal from the Cons…”