I was watching the Parliament channel yesterday afternoon when I noticed the following little gem from Conservative MP Anne Main.

Main was responding to the Labour MP Angela Rayner’s maiden speech in the House of Commons, where Rayner had mentioned, as part of a spirited defence of the National Health Service, that one of her sons had been born at 23 weeks and owed his life to our NHS.

Anne Main:

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) on her maiden speech. It was a very thought-provoking speech and one thing I will take from it was her passionate wishes for her young son, who she said survived at 23 weeks’ gestation. I wish her well in that and some of my right hon. and hon. Friends and some Opposition Members who tried in the last Parliament to revisit the gestational age for abortion may well wish to remind her of that if she is present for any such debate. I would like that subject to be revisited at some point in the future, as I know would other colleagues.”

I know there was nothing in either the Tory Party manifesto or the Queen’s Speech about revisiting the debate on the abortion term-limits, but it doesn’t look as though this issue is going to go away anytime soon either.

Main’s comments are also a reminder, if any such reminder was needed, that some (snidey) people never miss an opportunity….

You can find the full Hansard text of the exchange here – Hansard. 2nd June 2015

Or click here to see Angela’s maiden speech followed by Anne Main’s response