‘She doesn’t answer my letters’: MP’s fury at Yvette Cooper’s ‘celebrity’ obsession after Health Secretary met Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson about birth trauma
Independent MP Rosie Duffield has criticised Health Secretary Yvette Cooper for meeting reality TV star Louise Thompson to discuss birth trauma while, she claims, ignoring her own letters and requests for a meeting on the same issue. Duffield, who represents Canterbury and chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Birth Trauma, suggested she was being overlooked because she is "not a celebrity" like Thompson, a former Made in Chelsea star turned maternity care campaigner. The row highlights tensions over how ministers engage with campaigners, contrasting the access afforded to high-profile figures against that given to elected representatives and grassroots advocates working on the same causes.
Thompson, 36, nearly died after giving birth to her son in 2021 and has since campaigned for a UK maternity commissioner; the Department of Health and Social Care said Cooper's meeting with her was to thank her for speaking out and to discuss the new Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner role, a recommendation from Baroness Amos's inquiry into maternity services. Duffield, who quit Labour after being elected in 2024 amid frustration with Sir Keir Starmer's leadership, said she had raised similar issues for years and known the health secretary for a decade without securing a meeting or reply. Rebecca Matthews, co-founder of the Families Failed by OUH Maternity Services group, echoed the criticism, questioning why Cooper chose to meet a celebrity rather than families harmed by poor maternity care.
- MP Rosie Duffield accuses Yvette Cooper of favouring celebrities over MPs
- Cooper met Made in Chelsea's Louise Thompson on birth trauma reforms
- Duffield says her own letters on the issue go unanswered
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Independent MP Rosie Duffield has accused Health Secretary Yvette Cooper of favouring celebrity campaigners over elected MPs on the issue of birth trauma, after Cooper met former Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson to discuss the topic. Duffield, who sits as an independent for Canterbury after leaving the Labour Party, chairs a cross-party group of MPs focused on birth trauma and says she has tried for years to get a meeting with Cooper without success.
Louise Thompson became a prominent maternity safety campaigner after nearly dying during childbirth in 2021, and has pushed for the creation of a national maternity commissioner. The government says Cooper's meeting with her was linked to plans for a new Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner role, a recommendation from an official inquiry into maternity care led by Baroness Amos.
The dispute touches on a wider question of how government ministers decide who gets access to them when campaigning on health issues, and whether public profile affects that access. Maternity safety has been under sustained scrutiny in recent years following a series of inquiries into failings in NHS care.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Ministers must weigh limited time against impact, and meeting a well-known public figure who has spoken candidly about nearly dying in childbirth can raise the profile of maternity safety far more than a private letter ever could, encouraging other survivors to come forward and keeping the issue in the public eye. Louise Thompson has campaigned consistently for a maternity commissioner, and thanking her while discussing that specific policy recommendation is a reasonable, targeted use of a minister's time rather than a snub to anyone else. Governments routinely engage high-profile advocates alongside, not instead of, formal parliamentary and campaign-group channels, and one meeting does not preclude others happening through different routes.
The case against
Elected MPs and grassroots families who have lived through poor maternity care, and who have spent years building expertise and formal structures like an All-Party Parliamentary Group, have a legitimate expectation of direct engagement with the minister responsible, especially when they represent constituents and organised campaign groups rather than a single public profile. If genuine, repeated requests and letters over a decade have gone unanswered while a celebrity secures a meeting more readily, that suggests access is being shaped by media value rather than expertise or need, which risks sidelining the very families whose experiences should most directly inform policy. Accountability to Parliament and to those directly harmed by system failures arguably ought to take precedence over engagements chosen for their public profile.