Member

The Minister will note that there was a vote on this trial at the end of the Opposition day debate in the summer, where a large number of her party abstained and three voted against. There were also votes against from many other parties. As a doctor, I appreciate that voting on a clinical trial is unusual, but let’s be clear: this is the Labour Government’s trial, it is taxpayers’ money being spent and it is young British children who we are talking about. If the Government want to run this trial and pay for it, why not bring it before the House so that parliamentarians can decide whether it is the right thing to do? We have a new Prime Minister and a new Secretary of State. The country needs to know if they are content to pay for a trial of powerful drugs on an unnecessarily large group of children, the majority of whom have self-limiting, temporary feelings of distress.