'I am sick and tired of it': Yvette Cooper accuses the NHS of treating women and babies as 'second-class patients'

From the Newshound archive · first published 30 September 2026.

Health Secretary Yvette Cooper told Labour's party conference in Liverpool that the NHS has forgotten mothers and newborns, vowing to appoint an independent maternity commissioner and restore Sure Start-style services to up to 1,000 family hubs. She said she was shocked to discover England has had no national maternity plan since 2012, when it was scrapped under Tory and Lib Dem austerity reforms. The Healthy Babies Programme, backed by £200 million over three years, will cover every local authority in England and focus on pregnancy through a child's second birthday.

The Lucy Letby scandal exposed a failure to track baby and child deaths across the NHS, with Cooper citing a lack of accountability as a key driver of the new plan.

Cooper pledged that parents will receive joined-up support on infant feeding, mental health, and bonding, alongside direct access to midwives and health visitors closer to home.

'Too often the cradle has been forgotten,' Cooper told delegates, invoking Nye Bevan's founding promise of care from cradle to grave.