MP Tessa Munt has tabled a debate on ME/CFS in Westminster Hall on 19 November 2025 from 4:30pm until 5:30pm.
Parliamentary debates allow members of parliament (MPs) to ask questions and serves as an important mechanism for backbench MPs to highlight concerns surrounding ME/CFS and obtain a response from the government.
Please write to your MP (via email) and ask them to attend the debate next week.
Find your MP
Dr Charles Shepherd, Honorary Medical Adviser to the ME Association provides the following information and has kindly added the bullet points to the template letter.
In addition to the template letter below, always state if there is a specific local issue that you want to raise in relation to GP services, a specialist referral service (if there is one or you need one), social care, education or obtaining an EHCP (if you have a child with ME/CFS) etc.
MPs don’t have much time in these sort of debates and like to bring in local issues facing a constituent if they can.
Template Letter
[Your Address]
[Your MPs Name
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
[Date]
Dear [INSERT MP's NAME]
As a member of your constituency with ME/CFS/Long Covid *delete as appropriate, I would like ask you to attend a debate on ME/CFS at Westminster Hall on 19 November 2025 from 4:30pm tabled by MP Tessa Munt.
Please may I ask you to raise as many of these important points as possible:
- Around 400,000 people have ME/CFS in the UK. ME/CFS affects all age groups and ethnicities. For most people, ME/CFS is a long term and very debilitating condition with around 25% of people being severely or very severely affected – meaning they are largely or totally housebound or bedbound
- In addition, there are around 2 million people with Long Covid – many of whom have ME/CFS symptoms. Research indicates that around 50% of people with Long Covid could also meet diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS.
- The economic cost to the country of ME/CFS (2017) has been estimated to be over £3 billion (https://2020health.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Counting-the-Cost-CFS-ME.pdf) per annum. The cost of Long Covid was estimated at £10.5bn (2024) for 2 million people who are believed to be affected (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10198-023-01653-z). We are therefore dealing with a major public health crisis.
- Government funding for biomedical research into ME/CFS is inadequate and is far below that given to many other long term debilitating conditions.
- Education and training on ME/CFS for doctors and other health professionals is often inadequate, inaccurate or non existent – resulting in people receiving late or misdiagnosis followed by inadequate or even harmful advice on management.
- Despite a new NICE guideline on ME/CFS, which recommends that everyone with ME/CFS should be referred by their GP to a multidisciplinary specialist service for diagnosis and management, no such service exists in many parts of the country. And where a service does exist it is unlikely to be providing the full diagnostic and management service that is recommended in the NICE guideline.
- Specialist services for children and adolescents, and for people with severe or very severe ME/CFS, are either lacking or inadequate in most parts of the country.
- People with ME/CFS (and Long Covid) often have great difficulty in obtaining sickness and disability benefits and may only succeed after going through a stressful appeal procedure.
For information, there is an All Party Parliamentary Group on ME* and one for Long Covid** which you can join to start helping thousands of people like me. To join the APPG’s, please contact MP Jo Platt who is the chair of both APPGs: jo.platt.mp@parliament.uk
Please let me know if you can help.
Yours sincerely,
[Insert name]
*https://appgme.co.uk
**https://members.parliament.uk/member/4673/appgofficerroles
Further Information
- UK Parliament: Government support for people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis | Nov 17, 2025
- The ME Association: Prevalence: Latest research suggests a 62% increase on historic estimates for ME/CFS in the UK | July 4, 2025
- The ME Association: New Government Plan to “Keep Britain Working” – What does it mean for people with ME/CFS or Long Covid? | November 5, 2025
- The ME Association: Employment, Government policy and ME/CFS or Long Covid | October 7, 2025