Brian Leishman

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir John. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing this debate. I add my appreciation to everyone he mentioned at the start of his excellent speech. I do not know of a bigger animal lover than my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) and I thank her for all the work that she does with her excellent APPG. As I said in a different debate yesterday, everything comes down to: “what kind of society do we want to live in?”—[Official Report, 2 February 2026; Vol. 780, c. 17WH.] This topic is no different. Currently, we live in a country that tolerates and sanctions experimentations that lead to pain, mutilation, intense suffering and, ultimately, the grotesque and very avoidable deaths of animals in laboratories. Over 2.6 million scientific procedures involving living animals were carried out in the UK in 2024. That figure shocked me. It is utterly appalling. Like the Minister answering for the Government here today, as Labour candidates, we stood on a manifesto that committed to working towards phasing out animal testing. However, in 2025 it was approved that over 5 million animals would be used in experiments over the coming years. That simply has to change. In a debate last week I made an intervention regarding passing Herbie’s law. If we are going to meet our manifesto commitment, passing Herbie’s law really is a must. We should move towards more modern, relevant and human-specific technologies for both the animals’ sake and for people needing treatment or who will do so in future. As I said, it is a question of what kind of society we want to live in. The moral case is surely reason enough. It is basic human decency to know that there should be an end to animal experimentation. As with everything, for things to change for the better, there must be the political will to make it so. I implore the Minister and our Government to get behind Herbie’s law. It is the right thing for the animals, it is popular and by adopting it we would be making a genuine difference and change the country for the better.