Laura Kyrke-Smith
MP for Aylesbury · Labour · United Kingdom
“The latest heatwaves have been really unsettling; kids have been unable to learn in schools, and care homes have been unable to keep residents cool. One of the GP practices in my constituency had to shut its waiting area because the temperatures were dangerously high.”
“T2. This month I was delighted to award my community champion award to Afzaal Hussain. After his best friend was stabbed and died in 2021, he set up In This Together Bucks, which has now removed more than 1,500 knives from the streets while also addressing underlying causes of knife crime through mentoring, mediation and support for famil…”
“We have seen three years of unimaginable suffering in Sudan, with 19 million people extremely hungry, millions of children out of school, and thousands of women and girls who have been raped.”
“The threats we face from hostile states are unprecedented in my lifetime, and geography is deceptive; we do not share a border with Russia or Iran, but our critical infrastructure is well within their reach, from hospital networks to transport networks and our banking systems.”
“Every time I have been to Buckinghamshire College Group in Aylesbury I have met fantastic staff who bring decades of professional experience to their roles and have a deep commitment to the young people.”
“One of my constituents has written to me about Natalie Abu Dayyeh, a young Christian girl from Birzeit in the west bank who was seized at gunpoint by Israeli forces earlier this month. Her family do not know where she is being held—they do not even know whether she is alive and being treated well.”
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“The real question is how we support people better when they are suicidal, knowing that our compassion, care and presence may not remove every risk but can make life more bearable, and our question may be the one that interrupts their suicidal thoughts and leads them to different choices. Again, that is something we must all be cognisant of. My third point is that the Government have to keep taking suicide risk and suicide prevention really seriously, as I know they do. I hope we will hear more on the suicide prevention strategy from the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed), who I welcome to his place. We know that the care a suicidal person receives can make a big difference.”
“This can make it a very difficult period for many women, including people who have not struggled with their mental health before. It is so important that we are all cognisant of this in ourselves and others around us. My second reflection is that we all carry a responsibility to each other. I still look back on Sophie’s death and blame myself; I ask whether I could have done more. As Paul Doble, a fascinating therapist working in my constituency of Aylesbury, recently put it to me, the reality is that we cannot prevent every suicide, but we must never be afraid to try.”
“Black women are more than twice as likely to die as white women, and women of Asian and mixed ethnic backgrounds also face elevated risks. With these risks and Sophie’s death in mind, I want to offer three reflections. The first is that we are all vulnerable—each and every one of us. Of the women who die by suicide, nearly half have known mental health problems, but the rest do not. It is a time when the social pressures are really great. People expect you to be revelling in the joy of the new baby, but the reality for many is that there are challenges in caring for the baby: not enough sleep, not enough company, feelings of loneliness, failure and guilt, and the loss of the sense of self—the old you that you knew before having children, which you fear is gone forever.”
“It was only after we lost her that I learned just what a risk there is of suicide in this period of life. One in four people experience some form of post-natal depression or anxiety, which is still poorly recognised as an issue generally, and it is something I campaign on. The vast majority go on to recover, but for some people it is very serious, and for some it is so unbearable that they end their lives. The leading cause of death for women in that period from six weeks to a year after the birth of their child is suicide. The Maternal Mental Health Alliance has delved into the data and found some more alarming details—in particular, the persistent social, economic and racial inequalities in who dies and who survives. Women in the most deprived areas have much higher rates of death.”
“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) on securing this debate. I will focus my contribution on the suicide risks during the perinatal period, which is the period from pregnancy through to the year after a child’s birth. I have spoken in the House before about the tragic death of my wonderful friend Sophie, who took her own life four years ago, leaving behind her husband and her three little girls aged six, three and just 10 weeks old. I have been feeling the sadness of her death again this week, looking at the photos of her youngest now setting off to primary school for the first time, beaming with pride, and I know Sophie would have been so proud too. I still vividly recall the shock of the moment I learned that she had died when the message came through from her husband.”
“Our staff want desperately to stay on to help their neighbours and communities, but the almost uninterrupted bombardment is merciless…I don’t anticipate that we will be able to hang on in Gaza City for very much longer.” The only way to restore an effective aid operation is to let the trucks in and across Gaza, protect aid workers at all times and bring an end to the relentless bombardment. That is entirely within the gift of the Government of Israel and within their obligations under international law, and there must be consequences for their flagrant disregard of those obligations. Our constituents see what is happening. As one of my residents put it, “History will ask each of us what we did as we watched the Palestinians starve and die.” Aid workers are risking everything to play their part.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. My former colleagues in the aid sector tell me that this is the toughest operating environment that they have ever worked in—some are British, some are international, almost all are Palestinian. My brilliant hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) has powerfully set out how they are risking their lives every day to do their jobs. Most of them are also experiencing their own personal and family humanitarian crises while trying to get relief to others. One aid agency told me that its staff in Gaza are now living on a single meal a day, and almost all of their families are enrolled in the agency’s own malnutrition programmes. It is set to get worse, as one aid worker put it: “The situation in Gaza City is incredibly serious.”
“Whether they are about the much needed eastern link road, the rail link to Milton Keynes or the many traffic hotspots, so many of the conversations I have with my residents come back to the same issue of our poor infrastructure and the impact it has on people’s quality of life. The Government’s announcement this week of £1.4 million of investment into transport funding for Buckinghamshire is therefore hugely welcome, opening up the potential to decrease congestion, improve pedestrian safety and much more. Will the Leader of the House join me in welcoming that funding? Will she urge Buckinghamshire council to use it to give Aylesbury the boost we need?”
“T6. This week, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution concluding that Israel’s conduct meets the legal definition of genocide, as laid out in the UN convention, noting in particular the killing and injuring of 50,000 Palestinian children. What assessment does the Foreign Secretary make of this resolution, and does he agree that we must go further to ensure accountability for these crimes and justice for the Palestinian people?”
“The third point is about how we drive more accountability in these contexts for breaches of international humanitarian law. Last month five aid workers were killed in an appalling attack on a UN convoy near El Fasher. I am glad that we called for accountability at the time, but we see a sustained pattern of attacks on aid workers in Sudan and elsewhere. In the case of Sudan, the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor has now found reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes and crimes against humanity may well have been and continue to be committed in Darfur. We have to be clear that that is absolutely unacceptable. I see the crisis in Sudan as a test of our compassion, but also of our capability in responding to humanitarian crises in the world today.”
“The second point is about how we use our diplomatic assets and tools to push for a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict. As one of the emergency response room spokespeople recently said: “We cannot continue to respond to the crisis while the guns keep firing. The people of Sudan need a ceasefire—now—to save lives and to rebuild our communities.” We have the opportunity of being the penholder on Sudan in the UN Security Council. We are rightly working with the African Union, the EU-convened group and others to make progress. We are looking outside of the established groups. I suspect it will be increasingly necessary to find informal coalitions of interested countries to work together for peace. It is complex and sensitive diplomacy, but it could not be more urgent.”
“Large parts of Sudan are completely out of reach of the UN and international aid agencies, which is completely unacceptable given the scale of the humanitarian needs, so we must keep up the pressure on the warring parties and their external backers in Russia, the UAE and elsewhere to allow aid to flow in. Sudan also shows why we may need new tools, whether it is in Yemen, Myanmar or, of course, Gaza. The denial of access to humanitarian aid has become a routine part of warring parties’ playbooks. We urgently need to find ways to create more expectation and more pressure. I think, for example, of the recommendation of my former employer, the International Rescue Committee, which has suggested that we should set up a new international mechanism to monitor and protect humanitarian aid access. That is just one idea.”
“Sudan is an example of why we have to get funding to the local responders in any humanitarian crisis, but in this case particularly to the emergency response rooms where there are extraordinary networks of volunteers embedded in communities, running community kitchens, feeding hundreds of families, operating mobile clinics, restoring basic infrastructure, and doing the work that international and humanitarian aid agencies are unable to do in the context. Beyond funding, there are three further ways in which our actions can have an important impact in the crisis in Sudan and beyond. The first is by pushing for expanded humanitarian access.”
“Our humanitarian aid budget is reduced, but our deep expertise and leverage in humanitarian action remain. The first thing to say is that funding is important, as it is in any humanitarian crisis. The £120 million that the UK committed to Sudan at the London conference in April—part of the £810 million aid package—will support 650,000 people with basic lifesaving aid this year, which we should be proud of. What we do with the funding matters. We are increasingly good at focusing on interventions that are proven to work, such as the use of ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat severe and acute malnutrition. Who we fund also matters.”
“At Zamzam refugee camp, starving people have been attacked, and aid agencies tell me that an estimated 450,000 to 500,000 have fled from the camp to Tawila, where they now live out in the open in extreme heat, with barely any food or water, and with diseases such as cholera taking hold. With the fighting now escalating in the Kordofan region, it looks set to be the next area of acute humanitarian crisis. As we have heard from other Members, that is not an accident; it is the result of a strategy by warring parties, at best, to allow civilians to be collateral damage in a vicious fight and, at worst, to deliberately and directly target them. Let me turn to what needs to be done. As I think about what needs to happen in Sudan, in many ways it feels like a test of how we act in response to humanitarian crises more broadly in these new times.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) for securing this debate. The crisis in Sudan is something that we should all be seeing on our TV screens and social media feeds, and we should be debating it here in Parliament every day, yet tragically it barely features, so my hon. Friend’s success in securing this debate is all the more commendable. As we have heard so powerfully, in just over two years 28,000 people have been killed, 12 million people, half of them children, have been forced to flee their homes, and there are 15 million children in need of humanitarian assistance. The human impact of this conflict is truly shocking. We know that the situation is particularly dire in North Darfur. Al Fashir has been described as a “city under siege”.”
“I agree with my hon. Friend that that is what is at stake here—I am sure the Minister will say more. I think that we are looking at that atrocity prevention strategy and we need to update it. I will conclude by saying that for me Sudan is a test of whether we can successfully push to get aid into the most awful humanitarian crises in the world. It is a test of whether our diplomacy can play a stabilising role and help to be a force for peaceful solutions. It is also a test, as my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Alice Macdonald) said, of whether those who violate international humanitarian law will be held accountable for their actions. That matters for the victims of the conflict in Sudan, but it also determines what warring parties think they can or cannot get away with in future conflicts.”
“I am really grateful to the Minister for her answer and for her focus on this. I would like to ask about midwives, who do incredible work supporting parents and babies, including identifying and supporting women who are facing mental health challenges. We desperately need more of them, yet the Royal College of Midwives has found that eight out of 10 student midwives who are due to qualify this year are not confident that they will find jobs. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that newly qualified midwives are able to find work?”
“Last week, I heard from a mum who applied for an EHCP for her son in December and was told it would be ready in June. She has now been informed by Buckinghamshire council that he remains unallocated, with 789 children ahead of him. I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for the work she is doing to grip and reform the SEND system, but can she talk more about her ambitions to support people caught in the horrible waiting game for EHCPs?”
“Najwa Ahmed Fathi Radwan and Mohammed Hassan Yousef Daoud are just two of the tens of thousands of Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza. Many of their names were read out over the course of 12 hours at a really powerful vigil, which I joined in Aylesbury town centre this weekend. Yet today, that list of dead children has likely just got longer, with Israel’s assault on Deir al-Balah. Will the Foreign Secretary say to his Israeli counterparts: enough is enough?”
“Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Martyn Waters to discuss the closure of Cublington’s only and much-loved pub, the Unicorn. Martyn is working hard with the community to buy it and to give it a future, and I have told him that he has my full support. I am grateful to the Leader of the House for making space to debate and progress our manifesto pledge to introduce a community right to buy. Will she share more about how that will help protect places like the Unicorn pub in Cublington?”
“I will be ensuring that in my constituency, people are able to feed in and that, ultimately, we are delivering better results for those parents and young people who desperately need it.”
“So many young people in Aylesbury are going on two or three-hour taxi rides to Oxford or Milton Keynes and beyond. I have heard from families in Aylesbury whose children are left waiting for transport that arrives late or not at all, sometimes with drivers they do not know or in vehicles that are not appropriate. Just imagine telling an autistic child that you do not know whether anyone is coming to collect them or what that journey will be like. Their distress is really palpable. We have to ensure that standards for home-to-school transport are really clear, and that home-to-school transport providers are better held to account. I welcome the Government’s funding commitments in that area already. I really welcome the commitment to reforming the SEND system, and it is right that we will be taking a consultative approach to it.”
“Secondly, although we should aspire to local mainstream provision wherever possible, there will always be a need for specialist provision for children with the most complex needs. In Aylesbury, we are fortunate to have some really inspiring leaders who are helping to build that capacity. Jane Cole is working night and day to establish a Red Balloon centre for teenagers with special educational needs on Walton Terrace, which will open in September. It is a lovely setting, and a safe and nurturing space. The team at the Chiltern Way academy trust is working to launch a new SEND sixth form to help SEND children to get over the line and into work at the end of their education. It is crucial that we keep building on that. Thirdly, we have to address the crisis in home-to-school transport.”
“When I talk to parents, they tell me that they want their children to go to their local school and to be part of their community, but too often they are told that their children’s needs are too complex, or that the school just cannot offer the provision that they need. I was heartbroken to hear from a mother whose child was excluded from school, not because of a poor behaviour but just because their complex needs were misunderstood and not supported in the right way. I know it is very difficult for schools too, but we urgently need to support mainstream schools to deliver more inclusive provision. That means funding for adaptations, training and confidence building for teachers, and it probably means drawing on the expertise of specialist providers to help mainstream schools build their capacity and confidence.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. In the 12 months since I was elected as the Member for Aylesbury and the villages, I have been struck again and again by the urgent need to reform our SEND system, given the sheer number of people who get in touch having been let down by different parts of the system, whether that is families, teachers, heads, councils or, of course, the young people at the heart of it. In this speech, I will focus on what better SEND provision could look like and make three points. First, provision must be local and mainstream wherever possible.”
“I join others in hugely welcoming today’s announcement. I will get straight on the case and urge Buckinghamshire council to prioritise Aylesbury for a Best Start family hub, given that we have the highest levels of deprivation in our county. I have been campaigning for better understanding of and support for maternal mental health. Many new mums tell me that what they really need in their community is somewhere they can go for advice and company. Does the Secretary of State agree that this should be of real benefit to parents who are struggling with their mental health?”
“I think that stems from the wider challenge that we have in society of young people, and people more broadly, feeling a bit disillusioned and disengaged from politics.”
“I am well assured that in doing so, the Bill does not seek to override or diminish the autonomy of the Scottish Parliament or Senedd Cymru, but rather offer a legislative framework that can be adopted in co-operation with them. It should be seen as an opportunity for collaboration—a chance for all corners of the UK to work together to improve the democratic process for every voter. A voter in Aberdeen should have exactly the same confidence in the integrity and accessibility of their vote as my constituents in Aylesbury have. Uniformity strengthens, rather than weakens, our Union and our democracy. I want to make a wider point about the context. We have seen a decline in voter turnout in recent years, especially among younger and transient populations.”
“Too many voters across Scotland and Wales, especially those in rural areas, students, those with disabilities and military personnel, have faced avoidable barriers to postal or proxy voting. Inconsistent regulations and outdated application processes have led to confusion and delays, and the result is that people are prevented from participating in our democracy. They may be serving overseas or temporarily relocated for work or on caring duties for a loved one—playing a vital part in our society or our economy—yet they are penalised for it by being unable to vote. The Bill’s reforms are sensible and pragmatic and aim to standardise the application procedures for such votes, improving the accessibility and transparency of the system but keeping it inclusive and fair.”
“I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert) for bringing forward the Bill, which I rise to support. It seeks not only to modernise our democratic processes but to safeguard the rights of every citizen across the devolved nations of the UK. At its heart, the Bill is about strengthening participation and ensuring that no one is left without a voice in our democratic institutions. In particular, it seeks to streamline and clarify the mechanisms for absentee voting—by post or by proxy—in the Scottish Parliament and in the Senedd Cymru elections, to align them more effectively with the broader UK framework while respecting the integrity of the devolved powers. The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy, but a right is meaningful only if it can be exercised in practice.”
“They were spot on, and we had great discussions about how that should help to increase understanding, engagement and participation in our democracy. I shared my hopes that our manifesto commitment to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 in general elections will help to do just that. I really hope that we as a Government will take that forward as quickly as possible.”
“I agree; the education system plays a big part. I thank my hon. Friend for making that point, which brings me to a related point. I recently ran a work experience programme for a fantastic group of 16 to 18-year-olds in Aylesbury, and I asked the students to come up with ideas for what more the Government could do for young people in this country. One group came straight to this point of politics, democracy and law. I thank the young people in that group—Ruqaiya Begum, Jacob McNorton, Munashe Ndoro, Georgia Bolland and Alex Foster—for their suggestions. Their ask of the Government was that we give the school curriculum a much greater focus on voting systems, political awareness, civic engagement, the rule of law and human rights.”
“I do agree. It is exactly that: if we are going to rebuild trust in democracy, that has to start with elections, and with a voting system that people have faith in. We have discussed the urgent need to rebuild engagement and trust in our democracy. That is fundamental, and the Bill, which will make absent voting more user-friendly and dependable, is a really important, concrete step forward. I urge colleagues across the House, regardless of which party or region they represent, to support it and help to ensure that no voter anywhere in the UK is absent from participating in our democracy simply because they are absent on polling day.”
“I am grateful to the more than 300 residents who took part in my bus survey. Many expressed frustration about Arriva’s decision to cut the X5 service, leaving schoolchildren stranded and people unable to get to work. Fortunately, on this occasion, Red Eagle Buses stepped in, but what happened speaks to the wider issue of bus companies not putting residents’ needs first. Will the Minister join me in asking Buckinghamshire council to take up the new franchising powers in the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill to fix exactly that issue?”
“One in four women experience mental health challenges during pregnancy or after birth; in fact, it is the most common complication of pregnancy in the UK. Last month, almost 50 hon. Members of this House pledged their support for improved maternal mental health provision at an event that I hosted with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. Will the Leader of the House advise on further opportunities to embed better maternal mental health provision in the Government’s 10-year plan for the NHS?”
“I thank the Prime Minister for his commitment to keeping our country safe and for his effective diplomacy to that end. While our international aid budget is now diminished, it remains my belief that the work we do to prevent and respond to humanitarian crises around the world plays a crucial role in global stability and security and, in turn, in our own. Can the Prime Minister reaffirm his commitment to that vital role for the UK in the world?”
“Mussa Abu Darabi is just one of hundreds of Palestinians who have been killed trying to access food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in recent weeks. Fifteen international human rights organisations have now warned that the GHF may face legal consequences for “aiding and abetting, or otherwise being complicit, in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.” Will the Minister join me in condemning the murder of desperate and starving people? What assessment does he make of the GHF’s legality?”
“I commend the Foreign Secretary for urging calm and restraint at this troubling time. I know that he has been engaging with our European counterparts—notably with France and Germany as the E3—but as the positions of the US and Israel on Iran harden, does he agree that this is the moment when our relationship with Europe as a collective force for diplomacy and peace will be crucial?”
“On Monday evening, two reckless individuals had their vehicles seized in Aylesbury town centre due to antisocial driving. I am really grateful to Thames Valley police, who acted quickly against them, and I am pleased that the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill will give the police stronger powers in this area, removing the requirement to issue a warning before a vehicle can be seized. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking the Thames Valley police officers for their dedicated work and join me in welcoming this Bill?”
“The HS2 line runs down the west side of Aylesbury. It will bring no benefits at all to my constituency, yet my residents have suffered years of noise, disruption, flooding, loss of access to the countryside and the destruction of their natural environment as a result of its construction. I am pleased that the Government are getting a grip on this issue, and I commend the Secretary of State for her honesty and focus, but my constituents will understandably be concerned by the news of further delays and potential further disruption. Can the Secretary of State confirm that she will do everything in her power to hold HS2 and its contractors to account in order to minimise the ongoing disruption for my long-suffering residents?”
“I am delighted by the Government’s commitment to moving healthcare closer to the community, including through the establishment of neighbourhood health centres. That is exactly what we need in Aylesbury, and I am pleased that all our key healthcare providers, including the NHS trust and several GP practices, are already working together to better integrate their care, which is an important step in the right direction. Will the Minister update me on his progress towards the model of neighbourhood-based healthcare? Can he advise what more Aylesbury’s healthcare providers can do to ensure that my residents benefit from the Government’s work in this area?”
“I welcome the clarity and focus on action that the Home Secretary has brought to the House. This morning I spoke to the father of a young woman in my constituency who was the victim of child sexual exploitation. He thinks that this is the right way forward, but his concern, and mine, is for those victims and survivors whose trauma will be opened up again by the process. As he put it: “When you open Pandora’s box, you’ve got to have the tools to deal with whatever comes out.” Will the Home Secretary say more about the tools that she will put in place to support the survivors at the heart of this issue?”
“It would strip away legal risks, as we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), and it would be free. It would also be popular, as we have heard. I hope that after today’s debate we can just get on with it. Legalising humanist marriage would have a transformative impact for humanist couples across the country, stripping away the awkwardness, inconvenience, cost and injustice of needing both an official ceremony and a moment of celebration. It would enable humanists to make their wedding day what it should be: the celebration of their commitment to each other, in line with their beliefs and values, and the legal recognition of that union once and for all.”
“We felt somewhat resentful at the time, and still do to this day, because it came with extra costs, extra admin and that niggling sense that the wedding we had invited everyone to a few weeks later was somehow not the real deal. That is why I am so pleased that this debate is happening, and I am so pleased to speak in support of the legal recognition of humanist marriages. I want humanist couples to be able to marry with a British Humanist Association celebrant of their choosing, and for this to have the same status in law as any other wedding. We have heard from others about how possible this is; I understand that the law can be changed quite quickly and easily by laying down the order under the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. No further legislative work is needed. I am so proud that Labour has long supported this.”
“We had wonderful feedback from our guests, many of whom had never been to a humanist wedding before but found it to be a very open, inclusive and moving ceremony, from the songs to the vows and the readings, many of which we had written together. Although I could happily be sucked into reminiscing about my wedding, I will turn to the point of today’s debate. For me, that starts with the fact that, although this week is the time we celebrate our wedding anniversary each year, it is not in fact my official wedding anniversary, which comes at the end of May, marking the date that we went to an unremarkable registry office in London to do the official bit.”
“I pay tribute to our incredible humanist celebrant, David Pack, who sadly passed away a few years ago, but will forever remain a central part of our special day. He helped us to create a ceremony that spoke to our values, and I want to borrow his words about why humanist weddings are so important. He said: “A lot of couples say they find it hypocritical to make promises before a god they don’t believe in…As humanists we believe that we can find a way of living and behaving decently without needing reference to any divine authority, drawing on our own human qualities: reason, emotion, experience and empathy”. That is what a humanist wedding enables a couple to express at that key moment in their lives.”
“I had not really heard of a humanist wedding before I started planning one, but once we realised the constraints of a civil ceremony—the limits on readings, songs, numbers of guests and locations—we quickly decided that we wanted something else: a celebration of not just our formal commitment, but our beliefs and values. Personally, although I have every respect for people of all faiths and none, it is through humanist values that I try to make sense of the world. For me, this is the one life that I have, and I try to live in the here and now, making decisions on what I feel and see that are based on logic, reason and evidence, and rooted in compassion, dignity and respect for other people. Because my husband sees the world in the same way, a humanist wedding was the right choice for us.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge), as well as the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo), for securing the debate. It is a timely debate for me, as it was exactly this week 11 years ago that I had my humanist wedding. It was one of the most wonderful days of my life—my husband and I, surrounded by family and friends, on a beautiful, windswept and, fortunately, sunny beach in Devon, marking and celebrating our decision to spend our lives together.”
“In Aylesbury town centre, we have some fantastic businesses, from Darlington’s to the Rockwood pub and Nafees bakery. They provide an amazing service to the community, but with issues such as traffic, parking and antisocial behaviour, they can struggle to get customers into town and through their doors. I congratulate the Minister on the work he is doing, but can he tell us more about how his small business strategy will support our high streets and town centres, like Aylesbury, to thrive?”