London Fashion Week: Cultural Contribution

Daniel Francis Excerpts

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Daniel Francis (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Rosie Wrighting) for securing this debate. I would like to highlight how adaptive fashion is being promoted at this year’s London Fashion Week.

Adaptive fashion enables people who have difficulties in dressing themselves, whether because of physical disabilities, limited mobility or chronic pain, to dress themselves comfortably and confidently. Clothing pieces are often equipped with additional functions such as zips, Velcro and magnetic fastenings, which can help with independent dressing while also providing discreet access for medical ports.

As the parent of a child with cerebral palsy, I know how important adaptive clothing is for someone with a physical disability and limited mobility. I pay tribute to fashion labels such as Unhidden, founded by Victoria Jenkins, that aim to make fashion accessible and inclusive for those with disabilities. Victoria’s new collection, which will be unveiled at this year’s London Fashion Week, will be modelled by individuals living with disabilities, chronic conditions or visible differences.

I applaud Victoria’s mission, but I am also aware of the need for adaptive clothing on the high street. I visited the Primark branch in Bexleyheath last year, where it was outlined to me how the company has launched an adaptive fashion range that was co-designed with Victoria and is available across 96 of its stores. It was refreshing to see a global brand such as Primark making clothing accessible, both physically and financially, for disabled people on the high street. Primark has joined other high street names, such as Asda and my former employer Marks & Spencer, which have adaptive clothing ranges for adults and children. I welcome the increase of adaptive fashion on the high street and in high-end fashion, but I am aware that more can still be done to ensure that it is not just a phenomenon, but easily accessible and available for every disabled person.

As a London MP, I welcome the impact that London Fashion Week has on the economy of our capital. I hope that in future years it will continue to use its role to promote adaptive clothing. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering once again for securing this valuable debate.

Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary

Daniel Francis Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Daniel Francis (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Lab)]

It is a privilege to speak in this debate to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. I am proud to serve as the Member of Parliament for Bexleyheath and Crayford and to represent a constituency that is home to around 2,000 veterans. My constituency is in proximity to the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, in the south-east corner of London. Back in the day, the Royal Arsenal was home to one of the biggest munitions factories in the UK, with 32,000 employees producing guns, shells, cartridge cases and bombs, so my constituency became a prime target for Nazi bombing.

While many of its residents were fighting overseas, my constituency was really playing its part to support the war effort. Crayford was home to the Vickers factory, which again produced machine guns, anti-aircraft predictors, naval gun-laying equipment, fuses and casings for Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bomb. The Slade Green heavy anti-aircraft battery was built in the late 1930s and was the most easterly anti-aircraft site built inside the London inner artillery zone. Today, the gun emplacements, fire command post, pillboxes and air raid shelter are still standing. After a successful local campaign in 2010, the site is now grade II listed.

There are a number of war memorials across the constituency, including the garden of remembrance in Oaklands Road, Bexleyheath; St Augustine’s church in Slade Green; St Paul’s church in Northumberland Heath; and the Crayford war memorial garden. A window in St Paulinus church, Crayford, commemorates three members of the women’s voluntary services who died in a V1 explosion in July 1944. In total, 66 people were killed and 184 properties were destroyed, with 7,000 properties being damaged in the area around Crayford High Street. Hundreds more properties were destroyed across the constituency as a result of Nazi bombing.

I pay tribute to the East Wickham & Welling War Memorial Trust for the work it does to commemorate the war effort and the brave soldiers from Bexleyheath and Crayford who served in the second world war. Its area of benefit covers parts of my constituency and the constituency of the hon. Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French). It has carried out extensive work to ensure that a memorial is in place for local people who gave their lives, and it holds an incredibly moving service every November to remember them.

I also mention the hard work and dedication of the two Royal British Legion branches in my constituency—the Bexleyheath and Welling branch and the Crayford branch—and thank them for all the work that they do to recognise the important contributions to the war effort. I look forward to joining them in attending a number of events in my constituency on Thursday to commemorate VE Day and to be able to pay my respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us.