Oral Answers to Questions

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

As I am sure my hon. Friend will see from studying the Government advice, we say very clearly that it is important that business should be carried on and that employers should decide, in consultation with their workers, whether it is safe for those workers to come into work or whether they should continue working from home. I happen to think that employers in this country have made huge strides in getting work places safe, and that is the message that we should all be conveying.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

I am sure that the Prime Minister will agree that men who mock women have no place in our society. Yet according to Baroness Cumberlege’s report last week into the hormone pregnancy test Primodos, sodium valproate and vaginal mesh, that is exactly what happened to thousands of women at the hands of some male medical experts. She said that many women were gaslighted and not believed. Will the Prime Minister commit to implementing all the recommendations in the baroness’s report? Will he meet me, Primodos campaigner Marie Lyon and my constituent Wilma Ord, who suffered as a result of Primodos, to ensure that women are heard and not denied essential care and that those affected get the recompense that they are rightfully due?

[The Prime Minister]

I am sure that I speak for many Members in this House when I say that I have had direct representations as a constituency MP from women who have suffered from exactly the conditions identified by Baroness Cumberlege and her committee. I also assure the hon. Lady that the Government take that issue with extreme seriousness. I have absolutely no hesitation in acceding to her request for a meeting, either with myself or the Department of Health, to make sure that she feels that we are addressing the issues in the way she would want.