Oldham’s ‘Drop the Bill’ Petition Delivered to Department of Health

Debbie Abrahams MP and Andy Burnham MP, Shadow Health Secretary for Health handing in Oldham's Drop the Bill petition to the Department of Health - 19/3/12

On 19 March Andy Burnham and I handed in a 475 signature Drop the Bill petition collected by Labour party supporters in Oldham over the weekend of 10th and 11th March. Many thanks to Phil Gaul for setting up the stall and the rest of the team who helped me collect signatures for the petition. And a [...]

Did you ‘take the leap’ on No Smoking Day?

Debbie stubs out her last ever ciggie!

I hope many of Oldham’s smokers decided to ‘take the leap’ and stop smoking on No Smoking Day on 14th March. To help with the campaign I posed with a giant cigarette stub as you can see from the photo! As a former chair of North West Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) I know [...]

Parliamentary Speech on the National Health Service

On 26 October I spoke in the House of Commons on the National Health Service complete with interventions from other members.  It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter). I do not want to impugn his integrity, or to suggest that what he wants for [...]

Maiden Speech on the Health and Social Care Bill

I had the pleasure of using the occassion of the Health and Social Care Bill to give my Maiden Speech before Parliament on 31 January 2011.  The full text of my speech is below and you can read the remainder of the debate on the parliamentary website here. Thank you for calling me to make [...]