Paul Williams was born on 23 August 1972 in Canterbury, England. His parents worked as a teacher and a nurse. His early education was at the Queen's School, Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. He started to support the Labour Party during the UK miners' strike and joined the party when he was studying medicine at the Newcastle University Medical School. Williams also obtained a Diploma in Tropical Medicine from the University of Liverpool. After graduating, he specialised in general practice. Prior to entering politics, Williams worked as a GP partner in Stockton and was also the chief executive officer of Hartlepool and Stockton Health GP Federation which oversees 37 practices in Hartlepool and Stockton. Williams also ran a health programme in Uganda for five years involving the implementation of a community health insurance scheme. This involved helping to set up a community hospital near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest which provided HIV, malaria and tuberculosis services.
Williams supports accountable care systems in the NHS led by primary care and public health. He opposes markets within the NHS, as he feels that they promote "expensive, complex activity". He supports a move away from the partnership model of general practice to a system provided at scale by GP-led not-for-profit provider organisations, employing salaried doctors. Williams claimed, “The law is creating unnecessary privatisation that isn’t working in the interests of patients. This is a ridiculous fragmentation of services, at a time when the rhetoric from government and NHS leaders has all been about integration.” He has advocated for all GP trainees and newly qualified mental health nurses, social workers and community nurses being employed directly by integrated care trusts, arguing this would reduce care costs. During his brief career as an MP Williams led a debate in the House of Commons highlighting the variation in experience of new mothers when receiving postnatal GP checks, and arguing for the inclusion of a specific check six weeks after birth for maternal mental health and wellbeing to be included in the national GP contract. Williams was also the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Adverse Childhood Experiences. In his constituency Williams worked to reduce waiting times for autism diagnosis from more than four years to less than twelve months.
While Stockton-on-Tees voted to leave the European Union, Williams was in favour of Britain remaining in the European Union, having stated that "no form of Brexit is better than the deal we already have as members of the European Union", and broke the Labour Party whip on six occasions to support a public vote on the UK's exit from the EU.
Personal life
His long-time partner is Vicky Holt who works as a nurse. They have two daughters and live in Stockton. In addition to his parliamentary activities, Williams continues to work as a GP in Stockton to maintain his medical licence. He is a trustee of ARC Theatre & Arts Centre, Stockton-on-Tees and the national charity The Parent-Infant Foundation, and a former board member of Catalyst, a local volunteering organisation.
