Tory MPs could 'talk out' proposal to make first aid training compulsory in schools

12,000 people have sent letters and emails urging MPs to support Compulsory Emergency First Aid Education Bill

Under the Bill all secondary schools would be required to teach pupils how to deliver mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other emergency medical techniques (Getty)

Proposals to make emergency first aid training compulsory for all children risk being blocked by hardline Tory MPs supported by the Government, it has emerged.

A Private Member’s Bill will be debated on Friday which would require all secondary schools to teach pupils how to deliver mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and other emergency medical techniques.

The proposal has cross-party support – with backbench Tory MPs even launching a campaign this week to persuade colleagues to back the Bill. However, ministers opposed to any additions to the school curriculum are resistant.

Under the Bill’s provisions, children between the ages of 11 and 16 will be given life-saving first aid training in school – including how to respond if someone is choking, having a heart attack or at risk of bleeding to death.

More than 12,000 people have sent their MPs letters and emails urging them to support the Compulsory Emergency First Aid Education Bill.

Supporters insist the Bill could save thousands of lives but fear it will be “talked out” by opponents – meaning it cannot be voted on. Under arcane Commons rules, MPs can block Private Member’s Bills by giving speeches until the allotted time for the debate elapses.

The Labour MP behind the Bill, Teresa Pearce, said she understood why ministers were “reluctant to ask schools to add more to what they already teach” but warned MPs would have to live with consequences of unnecessarily lost lives if they stopped children receiving first aid training.

Ms Pearce said: “I truly believe that if this Bill becomes law, we will, in a few years’ time, be able to see people who are alive because someone who was taught at school stepped up and saved a life. Education should be about more than just academic qualifications – it should be about life skills. What is a more important life skill than being able to assist another human being in an emergency?”

Sue Killen, chief executive of St John Ambulance, said even a few hours’ instruction would save lives. “With just half an hour, I could teach skills that would be really valuable,” she said. “It becomes part of someone’s DNA if they learn while young. It builds up confidence and is very empowering.”

Mini Willson, 10, from Stratford-upon-Avon, is living one of those saved lives. She severed the main artery in her wrist when she put her hand through a glass door last year. She owes everything to her brother, Max, then 16, who had learnt to staunch bleeding via the Combined Cadet Force.

“He heard a scream and came rushing,” Mini recalled. “He just went for it. The blood was spurting out. He got me on the kitchen table, and got a place mat, a towel, a dog lead, and duct tape. He told me to lean on the place mat and towel with all my might to place pressure on it.”