Bereaved mother says England maternity commissioner role would be ‘fundamentally dangerous’

Barley said the new role seemed ‘designed to grab headlines, but not to make the change that we need’. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The appointment of a national maternity commissioner would be “fundamentally dangerous”, a bereaved mother who founded a maternity safety campaign group has warned.

Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died because of failings at Barnsley hospital in 2022, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the recommendation for a maternity commissioner in England in the Amos review was “not going to do what we need to move maternity safety forwards”.