Jessica Toale
MP for Bournemouth West · Labour · United Kingdom
“Dorset has a proud armed forces tradition and can play a critical role in delivering our defence ambitions. We have a strong ecosystem of cutting-edge drone technology companies at the Dorset Innovation Park and a pipeline of skills and talent coming out of Bournemouth University and Bournemouth and Poole College.”
“It was a pleasure to meet Heather today, along with all the other campaigners. I thank them all for having shown such strength in coming forward to share their stories.”
“It is not too late to do the right thing, to acknowledge the scale of the failure and to improve care for those who were affected. I close by paying tribute again to my constituent Jan, whose courage and determination brought this issue to my attention. She has kept campaigning not just for herself, but for every family affected by DES.”
“In September, the MHRA admitted that it had made inaccurate statements for up to 25 years about when DES was withdrawn in Britain and apologised. In November, the former Health Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), acknowledged the suffering of DES-affected families and apologised.”
“We know that standard breast cancer screening does not pick things up and is not adequate for women who face DES exposure. Many women bear not only the emotional burden of uncertainty because of DES, but a financial burden, self-funding annual scans as a precautionary measure and undertaking fertility treatments.”
“They also face increased risks of reproductive complications, including infertility, ectopic pregnancies, premature births and a range of other conditions and complications that we are learning about all the time.”
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“The junction of Surrey Road and Prince of Wales Road; Wimborne Road, between Kinson library and Bear Cross; and Hankinson Road, around Winton rec—these are some of the more than 35 roads in Bournemouth West where residents have told me potholes are out of control. Lib Dem-led Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council has been given £7.5 million to maintain our roads and fix potholes. I will be writing to BCP council later today, but in the meantime, will the Minister join me in urging it to get its act together and finally fix our roads?”
“Over the last few weeks, I have visited Winton and Parkstone community pantry at the Winton Christadelphian church, which is supported by FareShare, and the sanctuary project at St Andrew’s church in Kinson, which has a food bank supported by the Trussell Trust. Both churches go out of their way to support our community members in need. Will the hon. Lady join me in paying tribute to the churches and their volunteers? Will she outline what more they can do to provide support with the cost of living and isolation in our communities?”
“As you know, Mr Speaker, the HealthBus Trust recently came from Bournemouth to Parliament and parked up its bus in Speaker’s Court. May I put on record my thanks to you for offering that opportunity? The HealthBus Trust provides direct, nurse-led care for people experiencing homelessness, but it needs access to local shared care records, including historical NHS records, to improve care and address complex needs. Will the Leader of the House join me in paying tribute to the HealthBus Trust’s trustees and volunteers? Will he ask Ministers to give due consideration to how we reach the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations in the ambition of our NHS 10-year plan to get more care into the community?”
“The least we can offer them is that clarity. If we truly believe that every young person, regardless of background, should be able to pursue higher education, we need to build financial architecture that does not undermine but supports that ambition.”
“We know that plan 2 loans have interest rates that mean balances balloon, and some students will never pay them back, and that graduates feel that they were mis-sold, but we have not yet discussed the impact that this is having on the job market. It is distorting behaviour, with graduate applicants asking for salaries below the repayment threshold to not trigger deductions. That is not how we should be shaping an ambitious economy in the modern world. In letters and emails from students, they ask for three things: that there be no further real-terms freezes to the repayment threshold, that interest rates be linked to CPI, and that there be a more progressive pay structure. Young people are calling for a fair and predictable settlement that reflects the contribution that they will make to our economy and society for decades to come.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for securing this important debate. We have a fundamental question to answer: is our higher education system set up to give young people, regardless of background, a fair chance? In a constituency such as Bournemouth West, part of an area with three universities and tens of thousands of students, I have seen at first hand how multiple changes to higher education funding consistently fall on students from low-income backgrounds—constraining them not by ability but by financial anxiety.”
“Last year, I ran a community campaign to save Westbourne post office, which mobilised thousands, and the post office was kept open. I also put pressure on Post Office Ltd to reopen a full service post office in Bournemouth town centre after the WH Smith closed, and one is opening in May. Residents should not have to fight so hard for their post offices. They provide a vital lifeline, especially for older and more vulnerable residents, allowing them to access government services, and for our local businesses, as we have heard. How will the Minister ensure that post offices remain a fixture on our high streets, and play a crucial role in revitalising our high streets and town centres?”
“Since my election I have been relentlessly focused on funding for our police, with £1 million for hotspot policing over the summer, 40 new officers for Dorset police, and it is why I relentlessly bang on to the Minister about the funding formula. Safety was a key theme of our Bournemouth town centre citizens’ panel. The panel called for four things: a co-ordinated women’s safety initiative, improved co-ordination of positive safety initiatives, awareness of CCTV effectiveness, and a lighting audit to highlight low and high lighting areas in the town. These sit alongside actions designed to improve the public realm, spur regeneration, fill our streets and restore civic pride. I will certainly be playing my part in all of these.”
“I recently met a resident who told me he does not let his 12 and 14-year-old daughters go out after 3 pm or 4 pm in Bournemouth. Yet when they went up to Regent Street he let them wander around and go off shopping on their own. Crime rates in Bournemouth are 16% lower than the national average. They are 130% higher in Westminster—an area that has 8% of London’s crime. I do not say that to minimise or to denigrate Westminster, but safety is not only about where the crime happens; it is also about whether the shops are filled and the streets busy, clean and looked after, and about confidence and pride, and feeling reassured and protected.”
“It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. Tackling crime and antisocial behaviour has been a priority in my constituency since my election. Countless residents have told me they feel unsafe. Bournemouth faces seasonal pressures, where millions of people visit our beaches and parks during the summer. Last year, we had a slew of negative headlines about chaos, decline and lawlessness, but the crime statistics show a completely different picture. Bournemouth is consistently in the top 20—if not top 10—safest cities, or large towns in our case. Yes, serious incidents occur, but they are trending downwards. Shoplifting is rife. I do not want to minimise that or people’s experience of it, but in my limited time I want to understand why fear feels so real for so many people when crime is relatively low.”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. Bournemouth and Poole rightly have reputations as premier tourism and leisure destinations, but less well known is our leadership in the digital and creative industries. Two businesses in my constituency, Content Ignite and Iplicit, have been ranked in the top 50 fastest- growing tech businesses in Britain by The Sunday Times . Could the Minister please expand on how this Government are supporting fast-growing high-value industries in coastal towns such as mine?”
“Last Friday, we launched the Bournemouth town centre citizens’ panel action plan. This was the culmination of seven months of work by 50 local residents of all ages and backgrounds to set out a shared vision for our town and action points for the future. The citizens’ panel was an effective way to meaningfully centre residents’ voices in the future of our town. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking those residents, who put so much time and passion into the project, and will he assure me that the Government are giving due consideration to how we centre residents’ voices in our high street strategy?”
“I have heard too many horror stories from leaseholders in Bournemouth West. One constituent, Jeremy Green, described feeling like a second-class citizen subject to the total autocratic control of his freeholder landlord and its managing agent. Will the Minister assure me that this Labour Government are getting on with reform and giving leaseholders the protections and dignity that they deserve?”
“We cannot claim to be the party of social mobility and dignity in work if we do not put the ladders in place. The Conservative record is clear: expanding medical places without expanding training posts, liberalising visas without the workforce planning and leaving UK graduates to carry the cost. The Bill is a necessary correction. It is fair, responsible and morally right for our NHS, communities and the next generation. To any students or recent graduates considering Australia, I say this: if we get this right, we have beaches that are just as impressive in Bournemouth, even if I cannot always guarantee the weather.”
“It is right that we prioritise skilling our own people; other countries recognise that reality. The United States, Canada and Australia prioritise domestic graduates for training opportunities. The Bill is consequential for me, as a Labour MP for a constituency that has never voted Labour before. Bournemouth and Poole are often seen as affluent areas, but they contain real inequalities and serious barriers to social mobility. In places such as West Howe and Alderney, parents tell me that they feel forgotten. They worry that their children do the right things, work hard and get the right grades, but are constantly told that they cannot compete or are locked out. If we want young people from council estates to believe that they belong in medicine, we must back that belief with opportunity.”
“The people who have come to the UK to care for our elderly, nurse our sick and heal our injured are important parts of the vibrant and diverse community that we have in Bournemouth, and I thank them for their service. We should also be proud that the NHS is a world-renowned employer and a real part of our soft power influence. Countries around the world aspire to the type of universal healthcare offering that we have in the UK, and our specialists train health professionals around the world. For many doctors around the globe, time spent working in the NHS is a badge of honour, but poaching doctors from countries that desperately need them while UK-trained doctors cannot progress is morally wrong. It undermines global health equity and erodes trust here at home.”
“Their policies meant that UK graduates are being squeezed out, with too many lost to the private sector or overseas not because of a lack of talent or commitment, but because the system did not work for them. I was proud to campaign on a commitment to train more local young people and to encourage companies to hire locally before looking overseas, and the same should be true for the NHS, so I am pleased that the Bill is doing that. This is not about blaming or disrespecting migrant workers. International doctors and those from our immigrant communities who work in all elements of our NHS are valued and respected. Immigration has enriched my town.”
“If we train doctors here, fund their education through British taxpayers and ask them to commit their lives and careers to the NHS, we owe them a fair chance to build those careers within it. The shadow Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Daventry (Stuart Andrew), has said that we should not play politics with people’s jobs. I agree, but we must recognise that the situation we are in now is a direct result of the Conservatives’ ill thought-through visa changes in the wake of the mess left by their post-Brexit settlement for the UK. The fact that we now have more than double the number of overseas-trained applicants than UK-trained applicants for a limited position is a consequence of that. Under the Conservatives, we became too reliant on pulling the immigration lever to solve our workforce shortages.”
“This Bill matters enormously in my constituency. The NHS is one of the largest local employers. Our hospitals, community services and care settings are the backbone of our local economy. We also have outstanding institutions—Bournemouth University, Bournemouth and Poole College and the Health Sciences University—ready and willing to provide a strong local pipeline of medical and health professionals. I have met professors at the school of midwifery at BU worried about whether its graduates will get a first placement, specialist nurses unable to progress their careers, and early-career psychiatrists forced to look for work far from home. That is not through a lack of demand for these services in the local area.”
“Most fair-minded businesses recognise that covid-era subsidies could not last for ever, yet many in hospitality, including in my constituency, are worried about what bill will come through for their rates in April. Can the Minister reassure those businesses and outline what transitional support we are putting in place in the short term and how we are reforming rates in the long term?”
“I welcome the Secretary of State’s serious and rapid action to tackle non-consensual sexual deepfakes on social media, which we know have generated child sexual abuse images and have been weaponised to abuse and silence women, including many in the House. We also know that AI’s capabilities are growing and it is becoming more widespread. How are the Government monitoring these evolving AI models to prevent them from causing harm in the future?”
“The subject of improving local bus routes, particularly those that connect the town centre, station and airport, frequently comes up in my conversations with Bournemouth West residents. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council has received £6 million from the Government to sustain and improve bus services, but despite that, it is threatening to cut vital routes, such as the No.36, on which lots of elderly and vulnerable residents rely. Will the Minister join me in condemning that decision, and call on the council to protect the vital routes on which residents rely?”
“However, I was shocked to learn that they were informed late on Tuesday evening that they would no longer be permitted to use the facilities in the House. They were instead moved to a venue off the estate, meaning that the majority were not able to visit Parliament at all. Madam Deputy Speaker, I would be grateful for your guidance on how such decisions are made; how Members can raise concerns with the House authorities; and whether you would be willing to join me in apologising to these key workers, and ensuring that they will be able to visit the House and meet Members properly at a future date.”
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I seek your guidance on a matter relating to access to the House. Unison had arranged, today, a lobby day for migrant care workers to meet their Members of Parliament and discuss concerns around care worker visas, exploitation and support for the sector. Those attending came from across the country, including from my constituency, and some came from as far as the Scottish highlands and Northern Ireland. The event was originally intended to take place on the parliamentary estate, either in Westminster Hall or in Committee Rooms, giving some of the hardest-working and lowest-paid workers in our country a valuable opportunity to visit and engage in this place of democracy. Many workers took time off at an incredibly busy time and arranged cover to enable them to attend.”
“Victims must be at the forefront of our minds when thinking about reforms to our justice system. Many of them wait years and are often retraumatised by going through the process of a criminal court trial. Can the Secretary of State tell me how these changes will ensure that we bring criminals properly and promptly to justice, to bring matters to a close for victims?”
“I recently attended the launch of a development site for 32 new affordable family homes in Bournemouth town centre. That is fantastic, but we need much more of it, because there are still 535 children in temporary accommodation in my constituency, many of them under the age of 10. House prices and rent costs are higher than the national average, whereas wages are not, because the previous Government failed to get a grip on the housing crisis. I welcome this decisive action to build more homes. Will the Minister condemn the last Government’s failure to deal with this crisis and the hundreds of thousands of children we still see in temporary accommodation?”
“Shut It Down is an organisation set up by two teachers at Glenmoor and Winton Academies in my constituency. It aims to prepare teachers for tough conversations and work with male pupils to tackle misogyny, and to promote positive masculinity and healthy relationships. What more can the Minister and her Department do to support such projects, and to tackle the culture of violence against women and girls at the earliest possible stages?”
“SoundStorm is a multi-award winning lead partner in the music hub in my constituency. It has helped more than half a million young people since being founded in 2002, but like any publicly funded body, it is worried about future funding, so I welcome the Education Secretary’s commitment to working through music hubs. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must continue to support music hubs in their work to teach teachers and get music into schools, so that kids at all ages can have a great music education?”
“I thank the Secretary of State for joining me at Branksome depot in my constituency to launch Great British Railways. It was welcomed by engineers, passengers, railway operators and local schools. I have a very different experience from that of the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), so will my right hon. Friend tell us how the Bill will benefit constituents and passengers across the rail network?”
“Some 2,000 children in my constituency will benefit from the removal of the two-child limit. Tackling the cost of living is an investment in people, their quality of life and their opportunity to contribute to our communities and economy.”
“This Budget comes alongside a wider programme, including a new EU-UK deal to stabilise prices and support jobs, renters’ rights and employment rights, extending free school meals and free breakfast clubs, and reforming the planning system, along with investment in house building, to deliver the affordable homes that we so desperately need. Why have we focused so much in this Budget on cutting the cost of living? Because when households feel pressure, our whole economy feels it: local hospitality businesses have fewer customers, bus companies have fewer passengers, and our creative venues suffer when families can no longer justify the cost of tickets. As we have heard so powerfully, poverty also has a knock-on effect on children’s ability to learn, their behaviour, their health and their life chances.”
“In fact, wages have gone up more in one year under this Government than they went up in the previous decade under the Conservatives. Interest rates have come down five times, which will help with the family’s mortgage. Inflation will be down because of this Budget, and these changes come alongside major investments in our energy infrastructure. Last week I visited a school that is one of the first to have public investment in solar panels, which will save it £8,500 a year. For our roads, my local authority is getting £38 million, double what it got last year. There is investment in our NHS and cultural values. No Budget sits in isolation.”
“They told me with absolute honesty what it felt like for them—the cost of food rising, energy bills creeping higher, the dread of their fixed-term mortgage coming to an end, and not having the time or money that they could use to treat their children. They were doing everything that society asks of them—working hard, raising children and contributing to their communities—yet they felt that they were slipping backwards. Let me enlighten any hon. Member who asks, “How is that family better off under this Budget?”, because they are at the forefront of my mind. They will be better off because of the £150 cut to their energy bills, because of the freeze on fuel duty, prescription charges and rail fares, because of the bus service subsidies that we are maintaining, and because the national living wage has been raised.”
“Although he is not in his place, I thank my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary for the investment in local hospitals, the 11 GPs across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, the 13,000 emergency dental appointments that we have had across Dorset, and the £1.3 million that my constituency of Bournemouth West has received to reopen the Winton health centre, which closed under the last Government. This is the difference that a Government who prioritise investment can make. Before I was elected, I met a couple whom I will never forget. He was a refuse collector for the local authority who was at risk of being fired and rehired on less pay, and with less job security, for the very same job that he had been doing for a decade. She was a teacher at an independent school, and they had two young children in our primary schools.”
“I am sure that the Chancellor appreciates the hon. Gentleman’s input into the Budget, given that the public roundly rejected your approach to our economy just a year and a half ago.”
“Will the hon. Gentleman reflect on the OBR saying that a decade of austerity and the impact of Brexit have had a much more pernicious effect on productivity than we believed before?”
“Last week during UK Parliament Week, I visited LEAF Studio, a specialist sports and performing arts school and sixth form in my Bournemouth West constituency. While all schools have welcomed the curriculum modernisation, I have a specific question from Mr Jones at LEAF Studio: will drama be made more accessible for children in the curriculum?”
“Based on their reaction today, Conservative Members may not care or remember, but every day I see the cost to my constituents in Bournemouth West of years of cuts to public services—youth services gone, neighbourhood policing decimated and no NHS dentist appointments. Can the Prime Minister confirm that there will be no return to austerity under this Labour Government?”
“I have spoken to many veterans in my constituency who are understandably concerned about the repeal of that law, and the vacuum that it leaves. Can the Secretary of State set out how the Bill supports our veterans?”
“I associate myself with the Minister’s comments on recognising the commitment of PCCs across the country. Despite being from different parties, the Dorset PCC David Sidwick and I have always worked constructively together, and he has been a doughty advocate for the funding we need to police the county effectively. On that note about funding, can I ask the Minister to look again at the police funding formula? Not only does it fail on rurality, as the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) says, but it also fails on the summer seasonal pressures facing my constituency, where upwards of 10 million people visit every summer.”
“The Hillsborough law is not only a matter of legal reform, but a matter of trust. If the public cannot trust the state to tell the truth when things go wrong, then the social contract is broken. The Hillsborough law gives us a way to rebuild it. I welcome the Prime Minister’s personal commitment to the issue and the reaffirmation that he will not water down the principles that give the Bill life. To all the families still waiting for justice—this Bill is for you. Let the Hillsborough law mark the moment when we say, finally and decisively, that justice delayed must never be justice denied.”
“This is an intergenerational issue and we are now seeing grandchildren, like Beth and Hannah, suffering from complications, with research only beginning to uncover the scale of the inherited harm. These women have fought for decades for the recognition and justice that they deserve, but for too long they have been ignored. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has admitted that it misled the public for more than a decade. Imagine if a duty of candour had existed for DES victims. Imagine if the MHRA, the Department of Health and pharmaceutical companies had been compelled to disclose what they knew and when they knew it: generations of women might have been spared devastating illnesses, families would have been spared grief, and trust in our institutions might have been preserved.”
“This is potentially one of the biggest pharmaceutical scandals in British history, and something upon which this Bill will, no doubt, shine a light. Jan’s mum, Rita, was prescribed DES. She died of breast cancer at the age of 32, when Jan was still a toddler. Jan has suffered from health problems for her whole life, including cervical cancer, and now her daughters, Beth and Hannah, have had a series of gynaecological problems. We know that women who took DES face around 30% higher risk of breast of cancer. Their daughters who were exposed to the drug have 40 times the risk of rare vaginal and cervical cancers, and also face infertility issues. On top of that, their sons show increased risk of genital abnormalities and infertility.”
“I would like to start by paying tribute to the many hon. Members and campaigners who have never stopped fighting for truth and accountability. We have heard many powerful contributions today, outlining a painful litany of cover-ups and scandals, where individuals and families have been betrayed by the very institutions that were meant to protect them. This Bill is also for those who are suffering, but who only now we are beginning to see and to recognise. My constituent, Jan Hall, is a diethylstilbestrol—DES—daughter. DES was an anti-miscarriage drug invested here in Britain and prescribed between 1939 and the late 1970s. It was marketed as a wonder drug, but even as evidence that the drug caused harm emerged in the 1950s and after it was linked to cancer in the 1970s, it continued to be prescribed to women.”
“The Conservatives left our asylum system in an absolute mess, and now they claim to care about consultation and community impact. Where was that when my community got two asylum hotels more than 10 years ago? This Government, by contrast, are bringing the number down while increasing the number of people with no right to be in the country who are returned, which shows how seriously we take the issue. Can the Minister please tell my constituents what more the Government are doing to close every single asylum hotel?”
“Later today, my hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) and I will meet small and medium-sized enterprises in the defence sector and skills training providers to discuss how we in Dorset can benefit from the Government’s defence industrial strategy. Can the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster tell me how this Government’s commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.5% by 2027 will create jobs and growth in my constituency of Bournemouth West?”
“Last week I visited Oak academy’s new building—a net zero, solar-powered, inspiring environment for young people. I would love young people across my constituency, and across the rest of the country, to have the opportunity to learn in such environments, so can the Secretary of State tell me what her Department is doing to improve the environmental performance of our schools?”
“My constituency is blessed with two world-class universities and an excellent further education college that provide a range of degrees, apprenticeships and qualifications. I recently met the Samee charity, which provides a structured training programme for young people with learning difficulties to get into self-employment. Can the Secretary of State tell me how this White Paper supports those types of training programmes and supports those young people to thrive?”
“Bournemouth has been made richer by its diversity and the communities that have chosen to make it their home, yet tensions rose over the summer due to protests about asylum seekers. I pay tribute to our local churches, particularly Lansdowne church and Gateway church, for the vital work they do to welcome asylum seekers and build community connection between our many communities. How can we do more to support those churches and the vital work they do?”
“I recently visited Leaps and Bounds nursery in Winton, and it was clear that the women who work there strive to create a safe and enriching environment for all the young people, so that they are ready to start school when they go. Can the Minister tell me how this Labour Government are making early years education—this critical time in a young person’s life—more accessible and affordable for parents in Bournemouth West?”