Thanks to THT and GSK for bringing us together so early in this government. As we heard from Sinead and no doubt speakers before this is not a condition that simply affects the LGBT community but nonetheless THT and the history of HIV in this country has its roots in our community and I hope that people are slowly but surely are getting the message that this is a government that is committed to resetting relations with the LGBT+ community after the experience we had with the last government.

THT was founded in 1982 a few months before I was born, AIDS was still known as the gay related immune deficiency and when Terry Higgins died that year his cause of death was given as pneumonia as doctors refused to talk to his friends about the disease. Thankfully his friends didn’t accept that and set up the trust in his honour to give a voice to people who had been suffering in silence. Since then THT has gone on from strength to strength, increasing public awareness, reducing stigma and raising millions of pounds for life-changing research and continues to do that in spite of the increasingly difficult backdrop facing so many of our charities across our country including THT. And that’s thanks to the dedication of people in this room that a disease that was a possible death sentence can now be treated and managed so that it is undetectable and untransmittable. Most of the public still don’t know that people on effective HIV treatment cannot pass it on and that’s why THT’s Can’t Pass It On campaign is continuing to turn this tide and it has the governments full support.

We also have a responsibility to do more for people living with HIV. The UK’s largest survey of people living with HIV was published this year and we should all be reassured than 9 in 10 people are more than happy with the care they receive but almost half feel ashamed about their diagnosis, 1 in 7 worry about being treated differently from other patients and 1 in 25 have been verbally harassed because of their HIV status. Just one person feeling anxious, ashamed or receiving abuse is one too many and I think everyone in this room is committed to turning the tide so no one living with HIV is facing these challenges alone.

I’ve been passionate about how we test and treat someone living with HIV for some years. I was honoured to be part of the HIV Commission that Terrence Higgins Trust led with other organisations in the HIV sector in 2020, which was loud and clear – implement these recommendations and England can be the first country to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This goal is still within our reach and that is why we’ve committed to updating the HIV action plan in our manifesto and Andrew Gwynne announced on Friday we will commit and keep building on the firm foundations you have laid.

In the maternity units opt-out testing has virtually eliminated HIV transmissions between mother and baby and new HIV diagnoses in England fell significantly between 2019 and 2022, and our HIV system today is moving testing and PrEP initiation online making life easier for patients and under the first HIV action plan the public, private and voluntary sectors have come together to tackle HIV.

Opt-out testing in emergency departments is a terrific example of this – in just over two years it has identified over 1,300 people living with HIV who are unaware of their status and not receiving treatment. That’s more than 1,300 lives that have been saved. It also picked up over 5,500 undiagnosed and untreated cases of hep B and hep C helping thousands to begin treatment that helps protect their liver and lowers their risk of developing cancer. That’s why our HIV response is not just a priority for me in this job it is a source of inspiration and shows what is possible if we truly prioritise prevention.

But a job half finished is a job unfinished. We need to do more to reach groups where HIV cases are rising, we need to eradicate the stigma that persists in parts of society, and we need to end new HIV transmissions by 2030.