Chris Coghlan
MP for Dorking and Horley · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“I have given the Government evidence that hundreds of children with special educational needs and disabilities are avoidably killing themselves because of public authority negligence and misconduct, including my constituent Jen Bridges-Chalkley.”
“Three years ago, my 22-year-old constituent, Hannah Byrne, whose family are in the Gallery, died on the first night of her holiday in Corfu. Two British women left the scene without ever being interviewed by police.”
“The Bill has been drafted by one of the most prominent mental capacity lawyers in the country, Alex Ruck Keene, honorary King’s counsel. It has two key clauses: a duty to assess capacity where a person is reasonably understood to have any impairment or disturbance in the functioning of their mind or brain; and a duty to assess capacity wh…”
“Charlie had Prader-Willi syndrome, which, in his case, gave him a genetic compulsion to overeat. Annabel repeatedly begged the authorities for help. They repeatedly ignored her. She locked the food cupboards but she could not prevent Charlie from buying food or going to food banks.”
“My mum had died a few months after I was born, and I was a sensitive boy. Well, they moved in. Christopher grew up in my childhood bedroom, and he loved the house as much as I did. As a young autistic man living alone in Leeds, Christopher was in danger.”
“The police knew about his paranoid schizophrenia diagnosis and his impaired judgment, yet they took no action. Under this Bill, the police would have had to refer Glover for a mental capacity assessment, which might have saved an innocent 12-year-old boy.”
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“When I visit places across my constituency, I often think about my mum. She visited those places, too, and I know that they bought her great joy. She died of ovarian cancer three months after I was born. That is why the Liberal Democrat 62-day cancer treatment guarantee is so important to me. Growing up, I developed a passion for public service, which helped me to move beyond the pain of her loss. It is why, when I saw that ISIS was murdering people, I joined the Foreign Office and Army Reserve, and served in Iraq. It is why I left my job in a hedge fund to start a charity training African entrepreneurs with Violet Busingye, a Rwandan refugee from the genocide. It is why I am here now. Statistics show that one of the worst places in the country for the special needs crisis is Surrey.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to make my maiden speech in this debate. I was moved by the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner)—particularly her devotion to her constituents. I already have some Stoke-on-Trent pottery in my kitchen, and I am always open to more. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Paul Beresford. He significantly tightened the legislation around child protection, and I—a father of three little girls—and parents across the country are grateful to him for it. I am hugely honoured to be the first Liberal MP for Dorking and Horley in over 100 years. It is my home: I grew up in Peaslake, just half a mile outside the constituency. Growing up, I was astounded by the beauty of our Surrey hills—from Leith hill to Box hill—and I still am.”