Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, used this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions to call for urgent improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care – drawing on his own experience living with ulcerative colitis.
Speaking directly to Sir Keir Starmer, the MP described waiting over a decade for his diagnosis and criticised the “postcode lottery” of care facing IBD patients across the country.
He called on the government to implement the IBD Standard, a practical framework setting out high-quality care benchmarks for health professionals, and pressed for the appointment of a National Clinical Lead for IBD to coordinate and drive those improvements.
He went on to call for implementation of the IBD Standard, a practical framework outlining high-quality standards of care for health professionals. The MP also asked whether the government would consider implementing a National Clinical Lead for IBD, to coordinate and drive those improvements in IBD care.
Sir Keir Starmer thanked Tom personally for sharing his lived experience of IBD, and congratulated him on recently running the London Marathon in aid of Crohn’s & Colitis UK.
While the Prime Minister acknowledged that care should be consistent, he offered only a commitment to provide “further detail.”
Mr Gordon will continue to fight for improved care and the implementation of a National Clinical Lead.
Tom said:
I welcome the PM’s warm words but need action, but the IBD community needs action, not promises.
As someone with lived experience as a patient, and a professional background in health policy, I’ve listened to the clinicians. They are clear: we need a National Clinical Lead to raise the bar.
The IBD community has shown me enormous support. The least I can do is fight for consistent, high-quality care everywhere in the country.
IBD Alliance UK have done vital work on this. Their 2026 framework should be applied as standard, and I will keep pushing until it is.
You can read more about the IBD standards here: https://ibduk.org/ibd-standards
