Vital Signsby Bridgehead

01  Topic  ·  Healthcare

Vital Signs: Diabetes

Change topic · 29 health and social care topics

Who is shaping the debate on diabetes: in Parliament, in the press, and among the experts the press turns to.

See the 6 search terms behind this page ↓

02  Who is talking  ·  pick a lens

03  The signal  ·  Where it is spoken from

195

of 1,439 MPs & peers have spoken on diabetes since 9 July 2024 · 333 Commons contributions from 142 constituencies · latest sitting indexed 27 October 2026

0Hansard contributions per seat32

Seats shaded by Hansard contributions on this topic. Lines join the 8 MPs in this list to their constituencies; peers have no seat and no line.

#Most activeSignalScore
  1. 01—Jim ShannonDemocratic Unionist Party · Strangford · Commons96
  2. 02—Sarah BoolShadowConservative · South Northamptonshire · Commons · Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Home Office)51
  3. 03—Tom GordonLiberal Democrat · Harrogate and Knaresborough · Commons45
  4. 04—Dr Caroline JohnsonShadowConservative · Sleaford and North Hykeham · Commons · Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)30
  5. 05—Baroness MerronMinisterLabour · House of Lords · Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)28.5
  6. 06—Stephanie PeacockMinisterLabour · Barnsley South · Commons · Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)27
  7. 07—Rebecca PaulShadowConservative · Reigate · Commons · Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport27
  8. 08—Josh NewburyLabour · Cannock Chase · Commons27
  9. 09—Lord RennardLiberal Democrat · House of Lords26.5
  10. 10—Irene CampbellLabour · North Ayrshire and Arran · Commons24

Score is a weighted Hansard contribution score for this topic since 9 July 2024. Portraits: UK Parliament Members API. Rank change (▲/▼) is vs. 7 days ago.

Hansard · weekly mentions

31 mentions in the last 8 sitting weeks, 24 in the 8 before

RecessJul 24Jan 25Jul 25Jan 26Jul 2637 · w/c 9 Mar2 · w/c 19 Oct

Recess weeks are not counted: sitting weeks are compared with sitting weeks, and the current week is left off until it is complete. Parliament was in recess 21 Sept to 11 Oct 2026. 451 mentions since 9 July 2024.

Press · articles per week

615 articles in 58 weeks, 149 of them in the last five

Jan 2026Jul62 · w/c 7 Sep

Source: Guardian archive, trade press and news search: a sample of coverage, not an exhaustive count. Weekly article counts to w/c 19 Oct; weeks not yet ingested are dropped rather than shown as zero.

Parliament · party split

Share of scored contributions

  • Labour102 members50%
  • Conservative35 members19%
  • Liberal Democrat29 members15%
  • Democratic Unionist Party4 members9%
  • Others (8 groups)25 members7%

Labour members account for 50% of the scored contributions on this topic, across 12 party groups in both Houses.

Parliament · reach

Members who have spoken

195of 1,439 MPs & peers

14% of the roster has spoken on this topic since 9 July 2024: one square per member, 142 MPs (navy) and 53 peers (cobalt).

Briefing · Parliament

Diabetes arises in Parliament over foot care, national programmes under the Health Bill and wider prevention

  1. In the Vascular Sector Reform debate on 10 September, Dr Zubir Ahmed (Labour) called diabetic foot the primary cause of limb loss and asked for a national foot attack pathway with same-day or next-day triage. Jim Shannon (DUP), who declared an interest as a type 2 diabetic, and Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat) cited a report on avoidable lower-limb amputations linked to gaps in care.
  2. In the same debate, Mr James Frith (Labour), for the Government, said NHS England guidance sets out that people with a diabetic foot ulcer needing urgent wound assessment should be seen within 24 hours. The debate was largely one of shared concern, with the argument centred on early diagnosis and consistent access.
  3. In the Commons Health Bill debate on 7 September, Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat), chair of the all-party parliamentary group for diabetes, spoke for new clause 121 on keeping national diabetes programmes and reporting on them to Parliament. Danny Beales (Labour) called the Diabetes Prevention Programme a huge success and said the benefits of programmes at scale should not be lost as decisions move to local level.
  4. In the Lords Health Bill debate on 13 October, Lord Smith of Ranmoor warned that local commissioning could create new variation in access to services including diabetes. Baroness Pidgeon and Lord Rennard (both Liberal Democrat) raised diabetes in the context of retaining central clinical expertise and rising health costs.
  5. Elsewhere diabetes featured as a side issue. In the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill debate on 11 September, Carla Lockhart (DUP) said type 1 diabetes could meet the Bill's definition of terminal illness if treatment were refused. On 12 October in the Lords, Baroness Merron (Labour) said type 2 diabetes is among the conditions considered when prioritising access to weight-loss medicines. On 20 October, Keir Mather (Labour) and Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative) raised air travel with insulin and scanner-sensitive equipment during the Civil Aviation Bill sitting.

Verbatim

  • As we all know, diabetes is unfortunately on the rise. Synonymous with diabetes is diabetic foot, which is now the primary cause of limb loss in this country.

    Dr Zubir Ahmed · Labour, Glasgow South West · Vascular Sector Reform · 10 Sept 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • This new clause would maintain existing national diabetes prevention, treatment and audit programmes, and would mean we see an explanation from the Government with regular reports in Parliament about how those are being continued.

    Tom Gordon · Liberal Democrat, Harrogate and Knaresborough · Health Bill · 7 Sept 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • The lines get particularly blurry when it comes to certain manageable conditions, such as type 1 diabetes. If a person decides to refuse treatment, such conditions could end up meeting the Bill's definition of terminal illness.

    Carla Lockhart · Democratic Unionist Party, Upper Bann · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 11 Sept 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • However, the priority, because we cannot meet demand, is to look at the BMI of individuals and at whether at least four serious health conditions are present, including high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, for example.

    Baroness Merron · Labour, House of Lords · Weight-loss Drugs · 12 Oct 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

  • Another group of people who need to be considered are those with diabetes—particularly type 1 diabetes—who have medical equipment on them that cannot go through the scanner.

    Charlie Dewhirst · Conservative, Bridlington and The Wolds · Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill [HL] (First sitting) · 20 Oct 2026
    Read in Hansard (opens in a new tab)

AI-drafted from 26 Hansard contributions over 19 sitting days · 2 September 2026 to 20 October 2026 · No sittings were recorded between 18 September 2026 and 11 October 2026. · quotes are exact copies of the Hansard record, speakers taken from the record · generated 24 Oct 2026 · how briefings are made

Expert voices · press citations

The most quoted voices on this topic

40 of 366 expert voices, 117 citations across 4 groups. Click a group to open it as a lens on the map.

Clinicians

18 · 52 citationsOpen lens ↑

Academics

16 · 44 citationsOpen lens ↑
  • Parth NarendranProfessor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Birmingham and adult diabetologist at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham6
  • Dr. Shivani Misralead researcher at Imperial College London5
  • Professor Kamlesh KhuntiDirector of the NIHR ARC East Midlands and the Real-World Evidence Unit, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester4
  • Prof Naveed SattarUniversity of Glasgow – School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health3
  • Dr Marie SpreckleyMRC Epidemiology Unit / IMS Epidemiology, University of Cambridge3
  • Kevin ColcloughLead clinical scientist for the Exeter MODY testing service at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust3
  • Alarcos CiezaUnit Head – Management of Noncommunicable Diseases Unit, Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, WHO2
  • Professor Marc-Emmanuel DumasChair in Systems Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London2
  • Bianca HemmingsenTechnical Lead – Diabetes, Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization (WHO)2
  • Dr David RyanMD & PhD student at UCL2
  • Dr Elizabeth Jarmannoncommunicable diseases technical advisor, MSF Access2
  • Dr Giulia De RossiDiabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellow at UCL2
  • Dr Hana KahleovaMD, PhD, director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine2
  • Dr Patrick HolmesGP and diabetes specialist2
  • Dr Rose Stewartdiabetes psychology lead for Wales2
  • Dr Sadia NiaziSenior Clinical Lecturer in Endodontology, King's College London2

Sector leaders

5 · 14 citationsOpen lens ↑

Regulators & officials

1 · 7 citationsOpen lens ↑
  • Helen KnightNational Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)7

Methodology

How Vital Signs ranks

Parliament. Every Hansard contribution on a topic since 9 July 2024 is scored by type and summed per member; the map colours each constituency by how often its MP has raised the topic. Peers sit in no constituency and are ranked but not mapped.

Press. Bylines rank journalists and quotations rank expert voices, across the Guardian archive and trade press Vital Signs has read. A voice’s pin marks its organisation’s base, never the person’s home.

Briefings. Drafted by an AI model from the underlying Hansard text or articles. Every quotation in a Parliament briefing is an exact copy of the Hansard record and linked to it; press quotations are as the linked articles reported them. The speaker is always taken from the record, not the model.

Search terms for Diabetes. These are the exact terms used to find what appears on this page.

Parliament: 6 terms

A Hansard contribution counts toward this topic when it contains any of these, matched as whole words.

  • diabetes
  • type 1 diabetes
  • type 2 diabetes
  • insulin
  • diabetic
  • diabetes prevention

News search: 3 terms, run each week

Each term is searched separately on Google News. Where a term only extends an earlier one (“cancer treatment” after “cancer”), it is skipped.

  • diabetes
  • insulin
  • diabetic

Guardian: 1 editor tag

The Guardian archive is read by its editors’ tags, not by keyword, so an article only counts if a Guardian editor filed it under one of these.

  • society/diabetes

Trade press: 2 outlets

Read by each outlet’s own category for this topic, not by keyword.

  • Pulse Today
  • Diabetes Times
Read the full methodology →Check your MP’s record →

Profiles

More on diabetes

Voices in the press

Journalists

Beyond Parliament

In care homes

A consultant-led care framework for diabetes, for UK care homes.

Headland Care Consulting condition framework for diabetesHeadland is a separate venture, founded by Dr Sheel Mehta and William Walter, Bridgehead’s Managing Director. Vital Signs does not rate or endorse it.