Speeches by Leadbeater.

“One thing I am trying to push the Government to do—because we have not done enough on it yet in my view—is something around loneliness and isolation. We need to have a loneliness strategy, which there has been over the last few years but there is not much going on at the moment by the looks of it; we need something lik…”

“This has been so interesting and really helpful, so thank you very much. I am going to come back to the point that you finished on, Misbah, when you last spoke around cohesion and integration at a community level and what we can do about that, but also what policy things we can change and put in place. You also said th…”

“Good afternoon, everybody. Sunder, Misbah and Peter, thank you very much for joining us. Sunder, we have worked together previously through British Future, and it is lovely to see you again. Misbah, I am very aware of the work of HOPE not hate. Today is my first session on the Committee, so I am learning as I go, but I…”

“That is really helpful, thank you. Misbah, would you say that things are getting better or worse? You probably know this issue is very close to my heart. Next year will be 10 years since the murder of my sister, Jo Cox, the MP for Batley and Spen. The culture then was very divisive and toxic, and we are nearly a decade…”

“Peter, do you have anything to add in terms of the motivations behind those protests?”

“You talked a lot there about the English flag. How does that play out in the nations? For me, this is about identity. It is about multiple identities. I am a very proud Yorkshire woman. I am also proud to be English. I am proud to be British and lots of other identities as well. What does that look like in Wales, Scotl…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for being so generous with her time in giving way. As we can see from today’s debate, this is not a rare condition. Maybe some people think that it is rare, but it affects many people, including Helen, who lives in Roberttown in my constituency. She was repeatedly misdiagnosed and has faced years…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) for securing this debate on an issue that we simply cannot ignore or put in the “too difficult” pile. This is a tragedy on so many levels—morally, politically, strategically, but above…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and will tell some of those stories now. I spent time with some of the kindest, most resilient people I have met. Even back then it was deemed too dangerous for us to go to Gaza, but in the west bank we spent time with many amazing people under the most difficult of circumstances…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I think what he is saying is that people have got different views, and they do have different views; we have different views in this House, and different people in different professions have different views. Every royal college has a neutral position on assisted dying be…”

“I thank the hon. Member for that intervention, and she is absolutely right; the detail does matter. That is why I am so grateful to colleagues who have engaged in the detail. We know that there are different views within the public, and we have to take on board the concerns of vulnerable groups—that is why the safeguar…”

“I thank him for his intervention, but I would say, as I have said previously, that people working in palliative care have a mixed range of views on this subject. I have met with palliative care doctors, and some are very supportive of a change in the law because of the suffering they have seen.”

“I am just going to make some progress. Patients must have “an inevitably progressive illness or disease which cannot be reversed by treatment” and a person is not considered to be terminally ill only because they have a disability or a mental disorder. These clear, strict criteria, plus the multiple capacity assessment…”

“I am going to finish. There will be stories of suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, lonely trips to Switzerland, police investigations, and everything else we have all heard of in recent months. As the Commission on Assisted Dying said in 2011, 14 years ago: “The current legal status of assisted dying [in …”

“I think we have covered that point already. These are not homogeneous groups of people; they have different views and opinions. If we look at the inconsistencies in the current law, it just does not make sense. If someone with a terminal illness voluntarily stops eating and drinking, it is legal for them to starve them…”

“I will make some progress. We have a system in which it legal for someone to starve themselves to death, which can take days or weeks, but where it is not legal for someone to seek assistance from a doctor to take an approved substance themselves to end their pain or suffering and take back control in their dying days.…”

“I am not going to take any more interventions, because lots of people want to speak. Then there are the criminal offences that the Bill introduces—none of which exist now—including life imprisonment for anyone who induces another person to take the approved substance, and 14 years in prison for coercion, dishonesty or …”

“I am going to finish shortly. Surely we should all have the right to decide what happens to our bodies and decide when enough is enough. Of course, giving people the right to choose does not take away the right not to choose. Today, we can vote with either our hearts or with our heads, but either way, we should end up …”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”