Andrew Lewin MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) made it clear that it is because of the actions of a very small number of peers, and he has no faith—and neither do I—that that would not be repeated this time around.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am going to make some progress. This is the first time that I have spoken on this subject, and I want to set out briefly why I have consistently supported choice at the end of life. First, there is the simple principle that, faced with a terminal diagnosis, it should be the right of the individual to choose how they leave this world. If we offer the choice of an assisted death in the circumstances detailed in the Bill, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Dr Prinsley) said in 2024, we will be “shortening death, not life…This is not life or death; this is death or death.” —[ Official Report , 29 November 2024; Vol. 757, c. 1048.] Our choice is whether we want people to have the choice of a dignified death or to force some people to endure painful and traumatic last moments, as my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove) set out in her astonishing speech.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  The point I was making, which I believe many colleagues will recognise, was that having over 100 hours of debate and more than 1,000 amendments was not conducive to the idea of making serious progress with the Bill; it was, to all intents and purposes, a filibuster. Our role today extends beyond debating the Bill. It is also to reaffirm the will and primacy of the House of Commons.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  Thank you for calling me, Madam Deputy Speaker. I mean that sincerely on a day when so many colleagues want to speak. I promise you that my remarks will be brief. Our debate today is about who has choice and agency in our society both in respect of the authority of this elected House of Commons and what limits should exist on the role of the other place, and, more fundamentally, in respect of the right of a terminally ill person to exercise choice at the end of their life and whether the state should be able to override that. We are back here for a Second Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill not because the question before us has changed since November 2024, but due to the actions of a small number of Members of the other place.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention. I do not have that number; what I do have is the number of amendments that were proposed. There were 1,286 wrecking amendments. There are many thoughtful and compassionate critics of the Bill who I respect deeply. I want to put on record my admiration for my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) and for her astonishingly brave speech. However, what I cannot condone is the actions of Members of the other place whose motivation in the last Session of Parliament appeared to be to block the democratic process.

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not at this moment. My second reason is the medical reality that some conditions are beyond good palliative care. Driving improvements in palliative care should be a moral imperative for all of us in this place, but doing that does not resolve the question before us today. Another doctor, the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), again speaking in November 2024, said that there are some conditions for which we “cannot provide” good palliative care. He said that for “the likes of the inoperable neck cancer, eroding away into the carotid artery”, there is “no alternative to that terrifying death.” —[ Official Report , 29 November 2024; Vol. 757, c. 1070.] If we fail to pass this Bill, we do so in the knowledge that we are making an active choice to allow people to continue to die in this way, when we know that an alternative is possible. Finally, I cannot support a status quo in which the state decrees that it knows better than a terminally ill person who has expressed their wish. That is the reality today—people who are dying are denied their wish to end their time on this Earth on their terms. I am voting for this Bill today because I believe in the primacy of the elected House of Commons, and above all because I believe that someone who is terminally ill should not have their last moments dictated to them by the state. Just as in life, in death an individual deserves to choose their own path.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Online Safety · Hansard source

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  I commend my right hon. Friend for her statement, but also for her personal decision to leave Elon Musk’s X. I left the platform over a year ago because I did not want to have any association with a platform whose founder has consistently called for civil war in our country and that amplifies extremist content. When she sits around the Cabinet table, will she make the case to her colleagues that there are many ways we can reach our constituents by social media, but we do not have to play by Elon Musk’s rules?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Secretary of State back to her position. I have been an advocate of local government reorganisation, but my thoughts today are with the local government officers and councillors who have been working so hard for so long, including in some instances people who have been employed specifically to manage the transition. Will my right hon. Friend give them some reassurance? What they need, above all else, is certainty, so can she tell the House that for Hertfordshire, where she has promised a full review, she will come forward as soon as possible with clarity about the timeline and what comes next?

• 2 Sept 2026 · EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK · Hansard source

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  It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Butler, in the first week of a new term. I congratulate the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) on securing this debate. Brexit has been an unmitigated failure: our economy is smaller, thousands of UK businesses have stopped exporting to the EU altogether and our position in the world has been diminished. I put on the record my thanks to the former Prime Minister and Chancellor for all the work that they did on a repair job in the first two years of this Government, but, in the brief time that I have today, I will focus on what comes next. I am pleased to see the Minister in Westminster Hall today and I welcome him to his role. I will talk specifically today about the importance of a youth mobility deal, because a visa-based scheme for 18 to 30-year-olds to allow them to travel freely between the United Kingdom and the European Union is something I have advocated for since my first few weeks in this place, and publicly since April 2025. The Government are in active negotiations with the EU about a youth mobility scheme as we speak. The prospect of such a deal has proven popular with the public; every poll on the subject consistently shows that there is broad support for a youth mobility deal. However, this is a moment to be courageous and ambitious, because we read in the media that there is a live debate about the number of people who will be subject to a youth mobility scheme—100,000, or slightly more than 100,000. In a context where net migration to the United Kingdom has fallen from a record high of over 800,000 to less than 200,000, I hope and believe that that should give Ministers the space and the confidence to agree an ambitious youth mobility deal. This negotiation is also a test of our Government’s ability to secure an agreement. Lots of pro-Europeans engaging with this subject and watching this debate want to see our Government engage in something that meaningfully moves our relationship with Europe forward. Achieving a youth mobility deal can be a test of that. I admire the Prime Minister’s courage in saying that he is going to walk towards difficult issues. With respect to the European Union and the opportunity for a youth mobility deal, I think that he and the Minister can walk towards an opportunity and I hope that they can secure it this year.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I welcome the model proposed for Hertfordshire, with four unitary authorities. Very importantly for me and my constituency, it keeps Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City together, and I am looking forward to working even more closely with my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia). It makes sense because of the A1(M) corridor and our shared history of new towns and garden cities. Would my right hon. Friend agree that the single biggest benefit for residents is no longer having to navigate the complexity and confusion of a two-tier council system? We will have one council and one point of accountability for the delivery of services.