King’s Speech

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

My Lords, I join all those across the House who have welcomed my noble friends Lady Merron and Lady Smith of Malvern to the Front Bench. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton, on her maiden speech, and my noble friend Lady Smith of Malvern—what a barnstorming speech; it is so good to have her back. I also say how sorry I am that we heard a valedictory speech from the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly—what a lovely contribution to finish on.

It is 13 years since I last spoke from the Labour Benches, and even longer since I spoke from the Government Benches. I put on record my thanks to my colleagues on the Cross Benches for giving me such a welcome home during that time, while I served as chief executive of the breast cancer charity Breast Cancer Now. I may have retired from that position as a charity leader, but I still am hugely concerned about the provision of services for patients with cancer. I agree with my noble friend Lord Knight that it is very hard for patients to hear the analysis of the Secretary of State for Health that the NHS is broken, because of course patients rely on the NHS for hope. Despite the tireless efforts of NHS staff, waiting times for cancer patients are woeful. We punch well below our weight in terms of survival rates in this country, and health inequalities and that old postcode lottery are playing out across the country. I welcome the ambitions set out in the King’s Speech to improve the NHS for all, tackle waiting times, focus on prevention and improve mental health provision, particularly for young people.

I would like to flag a particular issue which is an exemplar of the challenges facing our life sciences industry and the medical research world that I have come from. Breast cancer is one of the UK’s most common cancers. It is a significant health challenge: 55,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed each year. Despite amazing progress over the last couple of decades, we still see 11,500 women and 90 men die from incurable breast cancer every year; often, this form of breast cancer is referred to as secondary breast cancer. As we know, behind these statistics are real women’s lives. Breast cancer has not only a devastating impact on their lives but a real and measurable impact on our economy, as the work of Demos and Breast Cancer Now has shown.

With this new Labour Government coming in, we have the opportunity to truly transform the outcomes for people living with breast cancer, through promoting improved screening uptake, faster diagnosis and fairer, faster access to treatments and new innovation. That is so important. Ensuring that new, clinically effective drugs reach patients as quickly as possible is vital for improving cancer outcomes. It is also vital for our life sciences industry and for the medical research ecosystem that our universities are such an important part of. That new innovations reach patients as quickly as possible, at a price that the NHS can afford, is absolutely vital for a thriving economy and for people’s well-being in the future. An agile process for drug approvals in this country is therefore absolutely vital.

However, thousands of women are waiting with a particular type of incurable breast cancer, called HER2-low secondary breast cancer. They are missing out on a new drug called Enhertu. It is the first licensed treatment for their type of cancer and offers real hope for them; it is a life-extending treatment. In March, Enhertu was provisionally rejected by NICE for use on the NHS in England, impacting on these women’s lives and putting them on hold. We know that seven months before, in December, the Scottish Medicines Consortium approved this drug for use on the NHS, creating this sorry lottery. As a matter of urgency, will the Minister consider talking to NICE, which has a new process that is being adopted here for the first time, NHS England and the drug companies involved—Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca—to see whether a solution can be found? NICE has put on pause its process, which is a highly unusual move and very welcome. I believe that this is an example of something on which we really need to press forward with urgency.