Speeches by McIntyre.

“A happy new year to you and your team, Mr Speaker. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to closing the Tory asylum hotel in Gloucester by the end of this Parliament. I have raised with him in the past the plight of families who live next door to that hotel, who are having to deal with an increase in antisocial behaviour…”

“Let’s move on to industrial action. Before we come to the BMA, I will start with the longest ongoing strike in NHS history now—the phlebotomists in Gloucestershire. What steps are you and the Department taking to resolve that dispute so we can get the phlebotomists back into work, where they want to be.”

“Thank you. I am going to hand over to Paulette because she has a question on maternity before I come back in.”

“Thank you. Moving on to the subject of the day, we have heard a lot about the strikes in the media and the decision by the BMA to go on strike. To push you on a slightly different angle, what steps are you taking to try to resolve the strikes even at this late stage? Also, what steps are you taking as a Department to p…”

“On that taskforce, can I make a request? I recently met one of the brave whistleblowers who spoke out in the BBC “Panorama” documentary about Gloucestershire Royal hospital and the maternity failings there. To be quite honest, they were shut out from the internal investigations into what has gone wrong, and they were n…”

“I will turn to the maternity review being undertaken by Baroness Amos. Sadly, her initial findings will be all too familiar for Gloucester residents. The ones I have met told me about mothers being sat in bloody bed sheets without being changed and often not being listened to by their doctors, and sadly we have lost ba…”

“Before entering the House, I was an employment solicitor, and I saw the impact that judicial mediation had in our employment tribunals. Will the Minister agree to meet me to discuss the role that expanding judicial mediation could have in bringing down the backlog in our employment tribunals?”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. Gloucester residents are rightly worried about the rising flu levels. I was struck down a few weeks ago and can attest to how tough the current strain is. Does he agree that in this context it is reckless of the BMA to be taking its members out on strike, and will he ca…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. My residents in Gloucester are rightly worried about strike action in the run-up to Christmas, and the impact that it will have on waiting lists in my patch in Gloucester. I am not surprised that there is no one here from the Reform party to hear about the challenges th…”

“You touched earlier on the co-location of health services in leisure settings. What are the barriers to that being rolled out across the country?”

“Jeanette, you have called for national and local policy that prioritises accessible infrastructure to support things like walking, wheeling and everyday movement. What specific changes would you like to see? Are there any policy vehicles on the horizon that could be used to make those changes?”

“This is something of a leading question, but what is your view on the proposal to remove Sport England as a statutory planning consultee?”

“Huw, you have called for public leisure facilities to be a statutory service for local government. Is that the right way to protect spending on those services?”

“In practical terms, how else can we ensure that enabling physical activity—obviously we are looking at the older population today—is considered in the planning system?”

“Do you think customers are aware that if they are tucking into some hot wings, for example, they are also consuming an ingredient that is shared with condom lubricant?”

“We will call Coco Pops healthy going forward. What about protein bars? There has been a big television exposé on protein bars. A lot of organisations are introducing protein ranges as part of their drive to be healthier but a lot of the ingredients that are going into these are not what I would call food; they seem to …”

“One final question before I hand back to the Chair and this is for you both. Do you genuinely think, hand on heart—crikey, I am sat here as an obese man who enjoys takeaways and chocolate far more than I should—that we should be banning any of these foods? Companies are making hundreds of millions, if not billions, of …”

“What is defined as a healthy food by the federation? For example, we have received evidence that a box of Coco Pops has 10 health signs on it saying how healthy it is. Personally, I do not think that is a healthy breakfast for my child; it is a good treat—don’t get me wrong, we have all had Coco Pops and no one is talk…”

“I am going to move on to advertising in and out of the home for a moment. Obviously there has been a lot of discussion around advertising restrictions and regulations, and we have seen development where well-known, takeaway chains are now designing products that are non-HFSS, so they can be advertised. Obviously their …”

“I am going to make the assumption that most of your members are businesses; there will be some that are more voluntary and charitable, but the vast majority will be businesses. If you are a business in the food industry or in hospitality at the moment, it is difficult to make money by cutting your costs because things …”