Dr Beccy Cooper
MP for Worthing West · Labour · United Kingdom
“Its population is older than average—even though I am not older than average—frailty is increasing, multiple long-term conditions are common, emergency admissions are correspondingly higher, recruitment is harder and deprivation exists alongside affluence.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) for bringing this timely and important debate to the Chamber. As we have heard, corridor care is one of the clearest signs of wider pressures across urgent and emergency care services, including rising demand, delayed discharge and constrained hospital capacity.”
“We have talked about the back door, but I really want to talk about the front door. Members will be unsurprised to hear that, as a public health doctor, I know that prevention is a corridor care policy.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for those excellent remarks, and I agree wholeheartedly. As I have said, corridor care is a symptom, and our challenge is to identify the underlying causes, rather than simply measure the symptoms.”
“Every prevented stroke, every smoking cessation intervention, every warm home, every child who grows up healthier and every patient supported earlier in the community means one less avoidable admission to an already overcrowded emergency department, such as that of my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting.”
“I agree 100%. My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) has already talked about his role in the water, sanitation and hygiene all-party parliamentary group. Access to water is an absolutely essential health determinant.”
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“To be fair, my children would not necessarily recognise that description and might just say that their mum is a bit of a nag with a carrot obsession and an aversion to playing computer games for too long, but such are the joys of parenthood. When people ask what type of doctor I am—and I definitely do not have the patience for a PhD—the response that I am a public health consultant is often met with slightly puzzled stares, a recalibration of what they have heard, and the decision that I am probably a GP by another name. However, I am delighted to join my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) to represent public health here in the House. It is the reason I chose to go into politics. It is the art and science of keeping populations well and helping people to live healthy lives.”
“To anyone who is listening to my speech and thinking that this newbie MP is not doing too bad a job of selling the merits of her home town, I can thoroughly recommend the cakes at Sea Lane café on Goring beach, the coffee at both Coast café and Finch in Worthing town centre, and the breakfast at the Bluebird café in Ferring, among many others. At this point, I should also confess that my extolling of the virtues of cake—and all credit to the House staff for the incredible muffins in the parliamentary café—is tempered by the fact that I am by profession a medical doctor, and, as my children will testify, I am reasonably obsessed with making sure that cake is part of a healthy balance that allows us to enjoy all the different types of food.”
“I am only the second Member of Parliament to represent Worthing West. It was first formed in 1974, and for the past 30 years has been represented by Sir Peter Bottomley, who I know was very well respected here as the Father of the House. He was known for working cross-party on a variety of important campaigns, including leasehold reform and the infected blood scandal. Sir Peter and I share a great affection for Worthing West, and during the election campaign we often bumped into each other enjoying a quick cuppa with constituents. I should confess at this point that I am a northerner originally, adopted by the south as one of its own, and a good brew is a must-have for a day to start and end well. We have many excellent cafés in our area.”
“We are also privileged to be part of the Sussex Bay project, a movement of radical collaboration initiated by Adur & Worthing Councils with the mission of restoring a healthy blue ecosystem to our seas and waterways in which nature, people and the local economy can thrive. Worthing West is also home to the beautiful coastal and country villages of Ferring, East Preston, Angmering, Findon, Clapham and Patching. I can tell any keen campers—I have not been in Parliament long enough to know how many MPs actually like being without wi-fi and a good latte, but I am hoping to find a few—that the Fox Wood campsite in Patching is a firm local favourite. There are two very handy pubs near the site, The Fox and The Worlds End, which serve the most excellent food when your fire will not light and even the kids are sick of beans on toast.”
“Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tom Rutland). In this part of my constituency people can find Worthing town centre, our beautiful old lido building, and the recently returned Worthing wheel. Before being elected to Parliament, I had the great privilege of being the leader of Worthing council. Our vision for Worthing is for it to be both the fairest and the greenest coastal town in the UK, an ambition that I am sure my coastal colleagues will try to wrestle from me. Alongside an ambitious decarbonisation plan, work on Worthing’s town centre gardens will begin this autumn in a community and council-led project.”
“It is a privilege to make my maiden speech among such an outstanding group of people. I hope that people who have seen the maiden speeches over the past few days, and will watch them in the days, weeks and months to come, might see some of the warmth, kindness and decency that I have met in my fellow MPs in these first couple of weeks in Parliament. I am the newly elected Member for the beautiful constituency of Worthing West. Nestled between the south downs and the English channel, we are often described as that area just west of our big sister, Brighton. But, as with all younger sisters, we have many often unsung merits, about which it will be my absolute pleasure to tell the House a little today. Worthing West is made up of two thirds of Worthing town, the other third now being ably represented by my hon.”