Pharmacists must raise concerns with their local MPs about the issues they are facing, the Labour MP for Coventry North West and government whip Taiwo Owatemi has urged.

Ms Owatemi, who is herself a pharmacist, said the profession needed to speak with a unified voice, be more vocal about concerns and collaborate with other professions.

Speaking at The Pharmacy Show in Birmingham on Sunday, she said she often hears more from constituents than from pharmacists about problems facing the sector.

She added that drug shortages, for example, were 'not an issue that many MPs see in their inbox'.

'I should be hearing those challenges and I’m not hearing them,' Ms Owatemi said.

Pharmacists should speak to other professions, such as GPs, to get them on board with a 'mass campaign', she added.

All the pharmacy organisations should work closely together, 'with the same five or six asks and a clear timeline', she said.

Ms Owatemi added that 'sadly… MPs are not aware of the impact of pharmacy closures', adding that 'there is work to be done in terms of educating MPs'.

In the future, Ms Owatemi said she would like to 'unleash the clinical potential of pharmacy', including through 'a more detailed pharmacy prescribing service'.

She said she was 'very optimistic' and 'very excited' about the potential for community pharmacists.

And that primary care minister Stephen Kinnock 'seems to understand the pharmacy sector' and 'recognise that the funding model needs to change'.

Ms Owatemi told pharmacists to consider getting involved in a political party and consider running as a candidate themselves.

She suggested that pharmacists make 'good candidates', saying that all parties were 'looking for pharmacists'.

'When they knock on doors they are likely to have served those patients. As a profession, I know we are really great candidates,' Ms Owatemi told Pharmacy Show delegates.

Also at the Pharmacy Show this week, community pharmacy leaders shared their vision for the future of the sector, while Community Pharmacy England suggested that Labour's promised pharmacist prescribing service would likely build on Pharmacy First.

And yesterday NHS England’s director of pharmacy, optometry and dentistry, Ali Sparke, announced that Pharmacy First thresholds would be lowered until March.