{"id":514986,"date":"2026-06-23T21:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/514986\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:26:13","slug":"jesy-nelson-outraged-at-mps-after-debate-on-spinal-muscular-atrophy-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/514986\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesy Nelson outraged at MPs after debate on spinal muscular atrophy in parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has said she is outraged at MPs in an emotional video following a debate about spinal muscular atrophy<\/a> (SMA) testing in parliament.<\/p>\n

The singer, 35, was visibly upset in the near seven-minute video and said she felt \u201cheartbroken\u201d after hearing the public health minister Sharon Hodgson argue against a full SMA screening rollout.<\/p>\n

Nelson has been campaigning for newborn babies to be screened for the rare condition, which causes progressive muscle wastage, after her twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson, were diagnosed with it.<\/p>\n

The debate on Monday came after Nelson launched a petition, which received more than 150,000 signatures, before it was announced that SMA screening would be rolled out as part of in-screening evaluations (ISE) from October 2026 rather than the planned January 2027 launch.<\/p>\n

Despite testing being moved earlier than planned, Nelson claimed the limited rollout is not ethical and is a postcode lottery, as it means 28% will not be screened.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the debate, Nelson said: \u201cI listened to clinicians, experts, families, MPs all give their arguments as to why this is so important to be rolled out across the whole of England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is factual evidence that this treatment, if given from birth, is completely life-changing to a child that is diagnosed with SMA. If your child doesn\u2019t get treatment, they will not see their second birthday, they will die before the age of two.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my question to Sharon is, if it\u2019s safe enough for 72% of England to get this test at birth, then why is it not good enough for the 28% of England to not get tested at birth? How does that make any sense?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson said she showed a video to Hodgson after the debate of two sisters who were both diagnosed with SMA, however, received different treatments, leading one to be in a wheelchair while the other was able to run alongside her.<\/p>\n

Jesy Nelson said she felt \u2018outraged\u2019 following the debate (Scott Garfitt\/PA)<\/p>\n

The singer claimed the video surprised Hodgson, who told her she did not realise the full extent of early treatment.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cHow do we have a health minister standing up in Parliament arguing why this should not be rolled out across the whole of England, when she doesn\u2019t even know how life-changing this treatment is, she doesn\u2019t even know the effects that it has?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot tell you the outrage that I feel as a mother with two children who are suffering with SMA type one, this awful disease, how heartbreaking it is to hear someone try and argue against why children with SMA, future children with SMA, should be denied of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are basically telling me that if you live in a certain postcode, you\u2019re not as important as the other 72% of England.<\/p>\n

The video ended with Nelson appearing emotional as she shared the hardships she experiences caring for her two daughters.<\/p>\n

Jesy Nelson was visibly upset in the video she shared following the debate (Matt Crossick\/PA)<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI cannot tell you how heartbreaking it is to know that my children\u2019s lives could have looked completely different. They could have been walking by now. They didn\u2019t have to be on breathing machines, they didn\u2019t have to have coughing machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to give them medicine every four hours. I have to turn them every two hours, because they can\u2019t do that themselves. I have to make sure they\u2019re not choking. I have to watch them so closely to make sure that they don\u2019t choke on their own saliva, because this disease has affected their muscles with their swallowing,<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know that there are people that are literally making this decision to make children suffer. I have no words.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen are we going to get answers, and when is this going to change, because this cannot go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called on Hodgson and the health secretary, James Murray, to provide a timeline for when newborn SMA screenings will reach 100% coverage across England.<\/p>\n

SMA causes muscle weakness, movement problems, problems with breathing and swallowing, muscle tremors, and bone and joint problems.<\/p>\n

The singer said in January that her daughters\u2019 diagnosis would mean they are unlikely to ever be able to walk or regain their neck strength.<\/p>\n

Nelson has since become a patron of the charity SMA UK and, in January, met the then health secretary Wes Streeting to speak about the life-changing impact early detection of the condition could have had on her twins.<\/p>\n

In April, she visited 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n

She rose to fame after winning The X Factor in 2011 with Little Mix alongside Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Perrie Edwards, and Jade Thirlwall.<\/p>\n

She left in December 2020 after the group had spent nearly a decade together, with chart-topping singles including Cannonball, Shout Out To My Ex, and Wings.<\/p>\n

She has released two songs as a solo artist: Boyz, which featured US rapper Nicki Minaj, in 2021 and Bad Thing in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Little Mix star Jesy Nelson has said she is outraged at MPs in an emotional video following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,1042,60,1094,282,386],"class_list":["post-514986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-report","tag-tv","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}