Oral Answers to Questions

Alistair Strathern Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Olivia Bailey]

That is exactly what our new RSHE guidance aims to do, to give schools the support they need to ensure that our young people are taught about healthy relationships, and to learn about critical concepts such as consent.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

I know the Minister will share my concerns about some of the rise in regressive attitudes to sex, relationships and women among some subsets of young men, but far from being the drivers of that problem, young men should be the solution. Fantastic groups such as Beyond Equality show that at their heart, by giving young men spaces to explore their own sense of self, manhood, and healthy relationships on their own terms, they can have incredible and transformative impacts on gender attitudes to sex and a wider relationship ethos. How can we ensure that as part of our reforms we create more opportunities for those spaces at the heart of every young child’s education?

[Olivia Bailey]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for all the work that he does on this important topic. I agree with him wholeheartedly, and I very much hope and expect that our work with schools to ensure that healthy relationships are taught in them will mean that young men get the exact space that he is asking for.