Sarah Bool
MP for South Northamptonshire · Conservative · United Kingdom
“Greatworth in my constituency is a beautiful village, yet it is beset with problems. Not only is peak High Speed 2 construction going on, causing road closures, but the village is having inordinate issues with Anglian Water.”
“Silverstone put Northamptonshire on the map this week with the best attended grand prix ever: 564,000 people visited over three days, which is amazing. The next date I want Members to put in their diaries is the Blakesley Show on 1 August. In its 141st year, it is the perfect opportunity for locals to celebrate our farming community.”
“My constituent Guy Smith runs Sky Birds Sales, which successfully imports budgies. The Animal and Plant Health Agency has drastically changed its approach to batch testing, which is devastating his business. Will one of the Ministers meet me and my constituent to discuss this issue?”
“My apologies, Mr Speaker; my voice is going—it has nothing to do with England on Monday. These large solar schemes will need battery energy storage systems, but there are growing concerns about the safety of these systems.”
“On the issue of support for businesses, Brackley Antique Cellar is a unique business that has 200 dealers, but business rates are really affecting it. Antique spaces often take on unique properties, and business rates are really hurting them. Will the Minister reconsider the business rates for businesses such as Brackley Antique Cellar?”
“I think this is an important moment for us to remind all our constituents to check their insurance policies and make sure that they have sufficient cover, but on a practical note, may I ask whether the Minister expects the flood protection certificates to have the same status as energy performance certificates?”
The complete record
Every one of 479 lines we hold for Sarah Bool, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 10.
“If I had been asked about diabetes five years ago, on 9 March 2021, I would probably have said that my auntie had it, and that it was due to poor diet. If I had been asked the same question on 21 May 2021, I would have given a completely different answer. The change is that I was diagnosed as type 1 diabetic at the age of 33. In the space of 24 hours, from going for a blood test for something innocuous, my world entirely changed, and I was rushed into A&E to be given emergency care. Like many people outside this Chamber, I had little to no knowledge of type 1. The concept of the four Ts—“tiredness”, “thinner”, “thirst” and “toilet”—were unknown to me. The fact that I started losing weight quite quickly was a bonus, I thought. I did not realise what the signs meant.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I start by paying tribute to Lyla Story, a little girl whose death, aged two, from undiagnosed type 1 diabetes has brought us here today. I wish I could have been giving her a tour of Parliament rather than talking in this capacity, but her name will go down in the history of Parliament, in Hansard , because of the dedicated work that has been done. I pay tribute to her parents, Emma and John, who are with us in the Gallery and who have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of this condition. I commend their courage and determination in the face of such grief. I think they have much greater strength than many of us would have in a similar situation.”
“I want to end my speech with the memory of Lyla and say thank you to John and Emma for their efforts. I say to everyone: please remember those four Ts—“thirst”, “toilet”, “thin” and “tiredness”.”
“Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), who sitting in front of me, is type 1; Mr Speaker is type 1; and, of course, Baroness May in the upper House has been a fantastic advocate over the years. I hope that we can also work with some more celebrity figures, whether that is Nikita on “Strictly Come Dancing”, the actor James Norton, the rugby player Henry Slade or the comedian Ed Gamble. There are figures out there, and we just need to make it much more visible and approachable. Type 1 diabetes is not a scary condition—although it is a very difficult one, don’t get me wrong. We live with it 24 hours a day, whether we are too hot, too cold, tired, stressed or whatever. From what we are eating to when we are exercising, there is a lot we have to think about, but it is completely manageable with the right support.”
“We also want to see it in the personal child health record—the red book—and within the digital Best Start programme. We the CQC’s role in diagnosing type 1 in primary care to be clarified and strengthened—for example, inspections could assess whether staff receive appropriate training. We want local commissioners to commit to learning from incidents where type 1 is missed. We want NHS England—or whatever the equivalent is when that is disbanded—to work on this further, and we want the Department of Health and Social Care to review opportunities for national initiatives to drive improvements, such as the Getting It Right First Time programme. Everyone should rest assured that there are many fantastic representatives in Parliament who are type 1, and we will continue to fly the flag: my right hon.”
“At 3, you are at risk of going into DKA, and anything higher—I understand that Lyla may have been at 6 at the point that she was diagnosed—is critical. Clearly, I was very ill, but I had not picked up on all of those signs; I was not aware. Nevertheless, it is important that we have the four Ts in mind, at least as a baseline. We also want to make sure that all GP practices actually have the finger-prick test—the glucometer—available. Numerous practices have been contacted and they do not always have that, which I think is quite shocking. As a baseline, we also need to make sure that provision is there. As John has been campaigning hard for, we want to see the NICE guidelines updated to make sure that this is in the mindset of all our medical practitioners.”
“That is vital and fundamental for the future, to make sure that we do not have one in four children being diagnosed when in a state of DKA. In the meantime, I reiterate what the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) said: we want to see the four Ts built into training and education for all healthcare professionals. The four Ts are very important, but that does not necessarily mean that someone has to have every single one of those symptoms. I did not obviously show the signs of all four Ts, but when I had an HbA1c of 95— [ Interruption. ] That reaction! To put that into context, a normal person might have an average HbA1c of 20, while the threshold for diabetes is 48; I was at 95 at that stage. My ketones at the point of diagnosis were 2.7.”
“To go back to type 1, I have managed to secure today that I will introduce a 10-minute rule Bill on Tuesday 14 April to make provision for a universal national programme of screening for type 1 diabetes in children, building on all the work that John has been doing. I am working with medical professionals and charities, including Breakthrough T1D—as it is now called—and Diabetes UK, to look into the Italian model that was mentioned, in the hope that we can one day establish a programme that would catch type 1 before symptoms appear, transforming how we diagnose the condition in the future and helping people to prepare earlier. A lot more research is needed, because the key thing is the age at which someone can be diagnosed. We are working on three potential age ranges at which there would be repeat tests.”
“It can still be a bit of a postcode lottery for type 1 at this stage, which is something else that we have to work on. We must not just rely on some of the jabs that have recently become popular. They are a means of helping people to lose weight, which can be a significant part of type 2 diabetes, but they may not be the answer. There are events going on at the moment, saying that we should exercise some caution and make sure that any jabs that are taken are actually legitimate and proper, and not counterfeit. That is a sad side of this: people are seeking medical treatments that could also be harmful.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right that 90% of cases are actually type 2. That is probably also why we fail to understand the true signs of type 1, because there is real confusion and conflation of the two. I think it would actually give clarity if they were named slightly differently. My hon. Friend is also right that a tsunami of cases of type 2 will be hitting us in the years to come, and we have to do a lot more to raise awareness of that, whether that is about diet or by sharing the technology. Many of us are trying to be visible in wearing the technology and the patches, such as FreeStyle Libre and Dexcom. I think that is very good for removing the stigma and helping people to understand what we need to do in the future. We definitely need to see that tech rolled out for type 2, as well as for type 1.”
“Even if our military personnel are not deployed in offensive strikes, the additional air policing that the RAF is being committed to across the middle east means that it now has to do double the work, with no extra resources. What additional resources is the RAF being given to protect our service personnel in undertaking this activity?”
“T3. The provisions of the Armed Forces Bill extend anti-drone permissions to the UK armed forces and UK bases. RAF Croughton is a US air force base in my constituency. Will the changes give US personnel the same updated authorities that are being extended to the UK armed forces?”
“Data from the crime survey of England and Wales showed an increase of 6% in child exploitation offences compared with the previous year, and that comes on top of evidence that these platforms are linked to the fact girls are twice as likely as boys to experience anxiety. Recent data shows that girls who use social media at the age of 11 report greater distrust of other people at the age of 14. The problem is only growing. Every day that the Government delay is another day that millions of girls are left at risk. We do not need further reviews or consultations; we need a ban on social media for under-16s. It is time to grip this issue.”
“The technology is undoubtedly here to stay, but given the uncertainty of its development, is the Minister confident that the Government’s approach is sufficiently agile to prevent people from taking advantage of the technology to exploit women and girls? As we have heard, AI is only one part of the problem: social media is driving much of the digital exploitation of women and girls. Data from 44 forces provided to the NSPCC showed that the police recorded 7,263 “sexual communications with a child” offences in the last year— a number that has almost doubled since the offence came into force in 2017-18.”
“People merely used an existing image to take advantage of the technology and spread it using the power of social media. I welcome steps to stop it, but are we equipped to handle the changing digital landscape in the future? The Online Safety Act introduced key changes to the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and criminalised sharing intimate images of another person without their consent. The Government are now adding provisions to the Act to make it a criminal offence to create non-consensual intimate images. Do the Government believe that that will be sufficient, and that Ofcom has the necessary powers to stop this abhorrent practice? What I have seen from the Government so far is a reactive approach to AI and how it relates to women and girls.”
“There is no doubt that the complexity of the online world has resulted in significant digital exploitation. At this very moment, online content is being produced that takes advantage of women for financial gain. That is particularly worrying given that, according to Ofcom’s 2025 report on the time people spend online, women are spending more time than men across an array of websites. The issues around the digital exploitation of women and girls are particularly prominent on social media sites: over half of girls and women report receiving sexist comments about themselves online. This is a problem on an industrial scale. The recent Grok sexual imagery debacle brought this into sharp focus. It demonstrated the dangers posed to women who had not even engaged with the technology.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. Digital exploitation does not affect women and girls exclusively, but, given that four in five victims of online grooming are girls, it is an issue that we must focus on. As MPs, we are all aware of the risks and threats that women face in the online sphere. It is no surprise that the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children found that only 9% of girls feel safe in online spaces. The accounts of stalking given earlier are terrifying, especially those using Ring doorbells, which are designed to keep people safe; that they would be manipulated in that way is horrific. The case of Holly that involved Snapchat in the constituency of the hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) is frankly horrifying.”
“This is not the social media that we grew up on, where we used to post a little note on a wall for our friend’s birthday or upload photos from a night out—that is definitely not what children are seeing.”
“In terms of social media, I mean platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat; I am not talking about WhatsApp, which is a communication platform that many families use, although we have to be careful how it is used, because images can be shared on it. A ban is about ensuring that children cannot access these platforms. The issue has been raised at different levels. The problem is the content that children can see, and especially the way the algorithms are used. I recognise that the companies also need to take responsibility for what is being accessed and how people are accessing it, because this is going on at a scale larger than any parent could imagine.”
“Let me be clear: the challenges posed by digital exploitation will not vanish if we prohibit the use of social media, but that would be a bulwark against the dangers that social media poses, particularly to young people. If we allow people to access these platforms when they are more mature and more educated, we can hopefully achieve reductions in exploitation.”
“I agree, but we need to take action now on the ones that we are aware of. Our legislation absolutely needs to be much more agile for the future, and I am not saying that a ban will be a silver bullet, but it will protect many girls from digital exploitation. That is why I am asking the Minister to follow the policy set out by the Conservative party, which was accepted in the House of Lords, and prohibit those under the age of 16 from using social media. If we do not put our children into those arenas, they will be far less likely to experience the opportunities for exploitation that stem from the internet and target the young and the vulnerable. If the Government support those measures, they could move fast and take action without delay.”
“Labour’s response to high street struggles is a strategy later this year to look at “what more the Government can do to support our high streets.” Well, I will save them the trouble. They should adopt the Conservatives’ plan, and scrap business rates on those high streets.”
“My concern is about the regional and local levels. In South Northamptonshire, my villages already really struggle to get attention because it always goes to Northampton, Kettering and Corby. The regional system may make that worse, so how will the local areas actually work in practice? If they stick to existing sizes, I will have 96 parishes who still will not get attention, unless we exclude the major towns. Has the Home Secretary given thought to that?”
“The Minister says that China continues to pose a risk, and yet the Government today welcome this Trojan horse of an embassy into the heart of our capital. Consolidation helps China, not us, and planning conditions deal with the establishment but not the actual, real use inside the building in years to come. This has been asked many times before, but I ask again: are the British people safer as a result of this embassy—yes or no?”
“We have just been notified that William Blake House in my constituency—a residential home for people with severe learning disabilities—has been issued with a winding-up notice, and the court hearing is tomorrow. The families were given no notice of any of this, and no consultation was carried out, so naturally they are worried about what provision will be in place for their loved ones. Will the Minister meet me urgently to discuss putting a contingency plan in place for them?”
“The Minister has recognised that China poses significant threats, yet this Government are prepared to welcome this Trojan horse of an embassy into the heart of our city, so close to the Link system. He talks about material planning considerations, but that means balancing developing needs with community impact and ensuring that development aligns with local and national policies and site-specific details such as heritage, which was mentioned by the Father of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh). Not one contributor in this House can say that this embassy is not a threat to national security and that it is in any way a good and solid planning application. How can this Government be so naive as to accept it?”
“Given the seriousness of the issue and the sensitivities around the implications in his question, will you please advise me on how I can take the matter forward? Members of the public should be able to trust what is said in this place.”
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 12 November, during Prime Minister’s questions, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and leader of Reform announced that the “Reform-led West Northamptonshire Council will be issuing foreclosure notices on three migrant hotels”— including one in my constituency— “within the next few days,” because of “grave public concern about the safety of women and girls on the streets of West Northamptonshire.”— [ Official Report , 12 November 2025; Vol. 775, c. 151.] A freedom of information request response dated 9 December confirms that no such foreclosure notices have been issued. I asked the hon. Member for Clacton to correct the record and apologise for inadvertently misleading the House, but I have received no response.”
“Q14. This Government are always talking about the fair choices that they have made, but is it a fair choice to balloon the benefits bill? Is it a fair choice to introduce an unfunded and unwanted digital ID that will cost the public billions of pounds? And is it a fair choice to increase taxes on working people when the promise was not to? The answer is no. Can I ask the Prime Minister to consider one final fair choice? Thinking about food security and avoiding devastation for families across the country, will his Government reverse the family farm tax?”
“Let’s do a NICs 101: NICs are paid on a month-by-month basis, and are triggered when someone earns £417 a month. If a student or anyone else worked for just one month and did more than 35 hours in the month at minimum wage, the business would then have to pay an additional 15% of national insurance on every pound above £417. Cash is king, and if that is to be rolled out, it is no wonder that businesses are questioning whether they can take on any other employees.”
“That difficulty with forecasting also spills into the hospitality sector, as has been acknowledged. With benefits ballooning and the tax bill for the working man increasing day by day, everyone is feeling the pinch. They are all tightening their belts, so it becomes incredibly hard to forecast the current level of need. I was speaking to one of my local hospitality businesses, which has already been hit by a £900,000 NICs bill this year alone. The business was explaining the impact of NICs and what it means in reality. I think we throw around large numbers but do not actually understand the intricacies of them. The Chancellor said to the Treasury Committee that she does not see the link between the NICs increases and unemployment. I fail to see how she cannot see that link.”
“Take food production as an example; it should be obvious, but that work in that sector is often seasonal and cyclical. The labour demands of farming and horticultural businesses are variable and difficult to forecast with 100% accuracy. Crop conditions, weather conditions and customer demand all contribute to the inherent unpredictability in food production. On Monday night, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs voted against an amendment from the other place to insert a proper definition of “seasonal work” into the Employment Rights Bill, and Reform did not even bother to show up. The Government have instead proposed an amendment to “consult”. This is another issue that the Government hope they can just kick into the long grass and hope we will forget about.”
“As the late great Andy Williams sang, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” but I am afraid that is not true for farmers, business owners or those in retail, hospitality or leisure. Following the Chancellor’s Budget just two weeks ago, there are only two lines in that song that resonate—“scary ghost stories” caused by the Chancellor’s announcements, and memories of “tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago” before Labour got in. One of the many problems with the Government’s approach to working is that they start with the premise that any flexible or part-time working, including zero-hour contracts, is by nature wrong and unfair. In actuality, it simply reflects the needs of the market and businesses at any given moment, as well as personal preference.”
“My hon. Friend makes a valid and correct point. We have started to see a rise in unemployment in South Northamptonshire among 16 to 25-year-olds exactly because of that. The business owner I spoke to said that the problem is that the business starts paying at a certain level, but that increase pushes up across all wages across all levels of the business. Suddenly businesses are finding themselves drowning in the amount of money they are having to pay. That will stifle the market. We even talked to some of my hairdressers—they have been mentioned numerous times to the Minister—who said that the impact of NICs means that, according to the British Hair Consortium, there will be no new apprentice starts in 2027. That is staggering and appalling, when the Government are talking about all the opportunities for the young.”
“Absolutely. We need to encourage that next generation through to the workforce, and I cannot see that they are getting any of those opportunities at the moment. The Government are so proudly trying to promote that, but let us look at the impact and the figures. There can be no denying that they are achieving none of what they hope to achieve in future.”
“South Northamptonshire has 95 pubs, which are crucial to our rural community and to our economy. They are a great example of a place where young people can start their first jobs. At The White Hart in Hackleton, a young girl with Down’s syndrome, who could not get a job outside the village because of transport issues, took her first job. That job will be threatened by all the measures from this Government.”
“At least the hon. Member has acknowledged that we have to repay debt, unlike the Green party, which suddenly believes that repaying debt interest is not a viable or true alternative in this world. The hon. Gentleman denies talk of welfare, but it is a fundamental element. [ Interruption. ] I am glad to see that he agrees with that, but there is so much more. Why is the Labour party increasing the welfare bill? The Government have to grow the economy and that means supporting businesses, giving them opportunities, reducing tax and putting money in our pockets to do that. Unfortunately, we can see from everything that has come from the Government so far that the economy is not growing. Watch this space, but that is a problem that we will struggle with.”
“A lot of discussion has been had about helping our companies grow for the future, but part of that growth requires the ability to make long-term plans. Under this Government, we have seen the removal of the sustainable farming incentive, and capital grants have gone on and off. There is also the double cab pick-up tax and the fertiliser tax. When we add in the employer national insurance tax and the changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief, we have to ask how farmers are possibly supposed to plan or invest in the future.”
“We say that what is needed to bring back the festive cheer to our high streets is not more Government, but Government getting out of the way and allowing businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish. There is a big difference between business and the Government. Businesses, as has been mentioned, take risks with their own money. They provide jobs and they grow the economy. They are brave, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) said earlier, but this Government just risk taxpayers’ money, destroy jobs and contract the economy. Particularly, I look to my farming community. I have 550 farms, and they are the driver and the lifeblood of South Northamptonshire. One of their biggest issues, alongside things like NICs, is the inability to plan.”
“I agree entirely, and I am devastated to hear that, because that is exactly not what we need for society and for the young generation. Research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance showed that in 2024 the average pub paid almost £100,000 per year in taxes on the sale of alcoholic drinks alone. When we add to that the coming changes to business property relief and the recent increase to employer NICs, we see that hospitality is really being smothered. But there is a way out. There is no need for an enforced and permanent dry January. The Conservatives have a plan, and it includes the abolition of business rates for hundreds of thousands of high street businesses. The Government often deny it, but pubs and shops have seen their business rates bills more than double under this Government.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for making that point. The importance of the construction industry was mentioned earlier, along with the plan to give more construction apprenticeships and jobs to young people, but for those jobs to be offered, we need people to be investing in the first place. Companies are not doing that, because they cannot make those decisions. They do not know where the money is coming from. They do not know when the money will next be taken from them. We are not creating an environment in which they can grow. I do not see anyone on the Government Benches disagreeing with me on that, so I think my hon. Friend’s point is well made.”
“I never thought that a Christmas song could sum up a Government’s economic approach, but if we look at “We wish you a Merry Christmas”, it appears that we are in the “we won’t go until we’ve got some,” phase from this Government, whether they are demanding figgy pudding or, in this instance, tax. I am really hoping, though, that they will see the light and eventually help businesses to unlock, to reach their potential and to have a merry Christmas and a happy new year.”
“Absolutely. In Prime Minister’s questions earlier, I asked about the fair choices that this Government say they have made. I think those choices are fundamentally unfair. The Government are trying to introduce a digital ID scheme, unfunded by the Government, that could cost at least £1.8 billion, yet most of the public do not want it, given that 3 million people signed the petition against it. The Government then talk about inflicting tax hits on all our businesses. It is just madness. There is absolutely no sense of direction from this Government. This is not a pro-growth Chancellor but a no-growth Chancellor. That will be the legacy.”
“Now digital IDs will become the requirement for right to work checks in the UK, which may require children as young as 13 to be involved. Talk about the creeping hand of the state!”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. “Why are they needed when we already have secure ways to identify ourselves?” “This is being pushed under the façade of security.” “The cost to the taxpayer would be prohibitive.” “This system would be incredibly vulnerable to hacking.” Those direct quotes from my constituents get to the heart of the point: unnecessary; overreach; vulnerable; and expensive. Nearly 5,000 people in South Northamptonshire signed the petition to oppose the Government’s plans for digital IDs. This Government really are the living embodiment of the famous phrase: “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.” First, they sold the measure as a means of tackling illegal migration, but that principle has barely been mentioned in recent weeks.”
“This is a really dangerous gimmick from the Government. The devil is in the detail, and without that detail the devil is at play and the British public will pay.”
“If time permitted, I would happily take an intervention from any Government Member on where it was in the Labour manifesto that such a measure would be included, or if any member of the Government could actually tell us how much the scheme would cost. But I will save them the trouble, because it was not and they do not know. The OBR has said that there has been no specific funding identified for the scheme, and it is forecast to cost £1.8 billion over the next three years. We have a Government drowning in Budget leaks and accidentally releasing prisoners left, right and centre, so how can they be trusted to create a system of ID? Any such system requires absolute buy-in from all our constituents, and we can see that the very reason we are having this debate today is that the Government have not secured that buy-in.”
“The oldest law in economics is that if we tax something more, we get less of it. The inverse is also true: if we subsidise something more, we get more of it. Why do this Government believe that subsidising unemployment through huge increases to the welfare bill will not lead to more unemployment? Will the Secretary of State accept that those changes disincentivise work, and will he tell the House how much the Budget is expected to increase unemployment?”
“T2. First, I want to echo the concerns of the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael): the Paymaster General really must meet with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to discuss the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement—meeting with the Chair in private is not enough. When it comes to Europe and negotiating deals, the devil is always in the detail. Looking at the fisheries negotiation, we can see that the Government struggle with this area. Given that Switzerland will be paying €375 million a year, and it seems as though we will have to pay for the privilege of being a rule taker once more, can the Minister clarify exactly what he considers to be an appropriate financial contribution to be paid to the EU?”
“To the extent that he is able, can the Minister please explain what steps he is taking to secure UK commercial ports, given recent reports of individuals with links to the Russian military entering via those routes?”