(5 years, 10 months ago)
Westminster HallWestminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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It is a pleasure to speak in this debate, particularly under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. It is great to be in a Parliament in which women are prepared to stand up and share some of the most private, intimate things about their lives—probably things they have not told their mothers—in a forum such as this.
I just want to say that, when I went to the sexual health clinic in Edinburgh, my mother came with me. She was the only person I trusted—and, yes, until today there were only a handful of people in my life who knew that story.
She sounds fantastic—how lucky you are.
We are now in an age in which women can stand up in Parliament, as I do not think they could even as recently as 2010, when I was first elected, and talk about the cost of Tampax, smear tests, their sexual history—