Oral Answers to Questions

Gregory Stafford Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I have spoken before about trying to drag in a supplementary question that is not relevant to the main question. I call the shadow Minister and welcome him to the Dispatch Box for the first time.

[Gregory Stafford (Farnham and Bordon) (Con)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

Seven months ago, the NHS 10-year plan promised a maternity taskforce. May I ask the Minister how many times it has met?

[Dr Ahmed]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place. I am informed by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that it has not met yet, but we are establishing it and it will be meeting soon.

[Gregory Stafford]

The fact that the taskforce has not even met, seven months later, tells us everything we need to know about how urgent and important the Government consider this issue. In Leeds, families are losing faith in the failing maternity services. The Secretary of State said that he takes the matter “extremely seriously”, yet Donna Ockenden—who exposed the failings in Nottingham, has the support of families, and has said that she is ready and willing to lead the inquiry—has not been appointed. If the Minister and the Secretary of State take this issue extremely seriously, why have they not appointed a chair yet?

[Dr Ahmed]

I see that the brass neck of the hon. Gentlemen’s predecessor has been transplanted to him. He talks about seven months, but what about the last 14 years, through which the Conservatives presided over the decay and decline of our NHS? They failed our patients and the clinicians who serve them. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is in regular contact with maternity families and, like me, he takes the matter extremely seriously. He will report to this House on the outcome of his deliberations on a regular basis.