Melanie Ward MP: speeches

Speeches

• 13 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am almost in my 13th hour of trying to speak on this topic, so I hope Members will understand that I am not going to take any interventions. I rise to speak in support of new clause 4, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes); amendment (b) to new clause 14, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh); and amendment 13, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson). Let me start by saying that ending suffering is a shared goal of all Members across this House. No one has a monopoly on wanting to end suffering; the question is how best we do it. As a former aid worker and someone who has risked my own life in order to alleviate the suffering of total strangers in war zones, I promise the House that I am motivated to end suffering at least as much as the next Member. It is worth the House knowing, too, that my darling dad died of terminal cancer in a hospice that was run and funded by a charity, because the NHS does not have that provision. New clause 4 matters, because we do not live in an equal society, although many of us—particularly on the Labour Benches—seek to bring one about. This is a deeply flawed Bill, and the truth is that in seeking to give choice to some, it risks causing new harm to a much larger, vulnerable group of our citizens. The safeguards, which were watered down in Committee, will not prevent this. Indeed, this week, we have seen a letter from over 1,000 doctors saying that the Bill will “widen inequalities” and that it is “simply not safe”. Earlier, we heard a powerful speech from my hon. Friend the Member for Rochdale about the impact of advertising on the most vulnerable. New clause 4 would increase the collection of data about the impact on the most vulnerable and bring in proper oversight from the chief medical officer, including in relation to those with protected characteristics. Last time we debated the Bill, we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis). We are in the shared situation of having close and dearly loved family members who have complex disabilities. My hon. Friend and our families know how it is to have to struggle—to fight every week for the access to basic state services that our loved one is entitled to but cannot access. Those services and precious state resources would increase their equality and ability to live well, but were stretched beyond breaking point by successive Tory Governments. It is that experience that brought me into politics and into the Labour party, and to this day—away from my day job as a Member of this House—I still have to fight on behalf of my loved one, who has significant physical impairments as well as learning difficulties, for them to access the healthcare and support that they desperately need. Vulnerable people do not always make decisions in their own best interests, and I also know from my family experience that they can be highly susceptible to pressure from others who do not have their best interests at heart. That is why the transparency created by new clause 4 matters. I remind the House, too, that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has described the so-called safeguards in the Bill as “inadequate”, and that in Washington state, almost two thirds of those who had an assisted death in the last year for which data is available cited fear of being a burden on their family, friends or caregivers as a reason for doing so. I do not want that to happen in our country. Over 350 disability rights organisations oppose the Bill as it stands, and one of my constituents has told me that the Bill contributes to a sense among disabled people that “We are disposable.” Amendment 13 and new clause 4 both make important changes to the role of the voluntary assisted dying commissioner. I ask my hon. Friends on the Labour Benches whether they have questioned the wisdom of the Prime Minister himself having to personally appoint the death tsar—as the media have christened that role—shortly before the next general election. Finally, earlier this week, I heard an hon. Member say that he believes the Bill is flawed, but plans to vote for it anyway so that it becomes law and we would have to sort out the problems later—we have heard more of that today. The hon. Member did not specify how he thought this would happen, or when. He is right that the Bill is flawed, but he is wrong that we can ignore those problems. To do so would be to fail in our job as legislators. Being in favour of these amendments and against the Bill does not mean accepting the status quo, as some have tried to suggest. It means that we choose, instead, to protect the NHS and to work, to fight and to battle for a palliative care system that is worthy of those we represent, rather than diverting time and energy into helping people to kill themselves.

• 19 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for giving way. He is talking, rightly, about the importance of the implementation of legislation. He will be aware that new measures came into force two months ago under the Online Safety Act 2023, which introduced legal powers to remove online content that promotes suicide. Ahead of this, I wrote to Ofcom about a platform that is actively promoting suicide and suicidal ideation, and has been linked to the deaths of almost 100 young people and adults. The Ofcom chief executive replied to say that Ofcom was opening an investigation. Does the Minister agree that it needs to get on and remove this kind of content across the UK?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Grassroots Sports · Hansard source

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  The Kirkcaldy community football partnership does an amazing job providing a home for 18 teams, and bringing young people into our national game, including from some of the most deprived parts of our town. Facilities at Denfield Park are too often unusable due to water logging on the grass pitch, and it badly needs a new synthetic pitch. It is seeking funding for that as part of the Labour Government’s investment in grassroots sport in Scotland. I will meet the Scottish Football Association about that next week, so will the Minister support our funding bid, and will she join me in encouraging the Secretary of State to accept my invitation to visit our pitch in Kirkcaldy and see the need for herself?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Grassroots Sports · Hansard source

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  10. What steps her Department is taking to support the development of grassroots football in Scotland.

• 20 Mar 2025 · Knife Crime: Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is making an important and passionate speech. Historically, my area of Fife has not been synonymous with knife crime, and we want to keep it that way, but the possession of weapons in Fife has increased by 50% in the last year. Does he agree that figures like that, along with concerning recent footage on social media of a young man brandishing a knife shortly before he was attacked, are a warning sign that we need to act now to prevent worse developments?

• 7 Mar 2025 · Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill · Hansard source

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  In my constituency and across my area of Fife we have a real problem with violence and aggression in schools. Every week for the last month there has been a violent attack by children on children, and on almost every occasion it is filmed, shared on social media and amplified. Does the Minister agree that that is a real reason why we need action?

• 7 Mar 2025 · Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend and I were both present at an event with bereaved parents that was organised by our hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister), at which a number of social media companies were also present. The children who had taken their lives had been very active on the platforms provided by those companies. Does my hon. Friend share my dismay at the reaction of the social media companies in that room? They made it very clear that they did not understand the responsibility they held for the harm they were causing.

• 27 Feb 2025 · Gaza: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  Hamas are a proscribed organisation and that is as it should be. The Israeli military has banned international journalists from Gaza and at least 162 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last 500 days. Does the Secretary of State agree that BBC and all media coverage of Gaza can only benefit from journalists being allowed in to report on the ground, a point raised with me by some constituents in the past few weeks? Does she further agree that journalists must be protected from harm, in line with international law?

• 24 Feb 2025 · Social Media Use: Minimum Age · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Lady share my concern about what seems to be a growing phenomenon in my area of Fife, where young people are filming themselves committing acts of violent crime and then sharing the footage on social media? Last month, there was an attack on a young boy in Cowdenbeath by a group of other youths; they filmed it and shared the footage on Snapchat. Does the hon. Lady agree that although raising the online age of consent to 16 would not solve that problem completely and it would need to be properly enforced, it would be an important first step in tackling this kind of harm?

• 16 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Kirkcaldy Community Football Partnership does an amazing job in my constituency, supporting a number of local football clubs including Kirkcaldy and Dysart football club and Templehall United. It also runs an over-35s walking football team, which is of particular interest to me. It badly needs funding for a new synthetic all-weather pitch; does the Minister agree that this is an important cause, and one that deserves support?

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  There are numerous examples of the damage that out of control social media and mobile phone usage is doing to our young people, including in my area of Fife. The Courier newspaper has played an important role in highlighting this. Does the Secretary of State recognise the concerns that the safer phones Bill—the Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill—presented today by my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) and backed by many hon. Members across the House, seeks to address?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Gaza and Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing this important debate. It is impossible to do justice to the horrors in Gaza—famine conditions and polio among them—in the short time we have today. I was in Gaza in April this year, six months into the horrific humanitarian catastrophe that continues now. What I witnessed then was haunting, and it is so much worse in Gaza today. I wish to raise two main issues. First, there are alarming reports in the Israeli media that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is considering a proposal from Smotrich and Ben Gvir, the far-right members of his Cabinet, which would effectively prevent aid agencies, including the UN, from operating or distributing aid in Gaza. Instead, it would hand all such responsibility to the Israeli military, reportedly including the running of field hospitals. There are many reasons why that would be unacceptable. In January this year, the International Court of Justice ordered “immediate and effective” measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide by ensuring sufficient humanitarian assistance and enabling access to basic services. Despite that, the number of aid trucks that entered Gaza last month was the lowest we have seen since the start of the year. This is not an accident; the aid is deliberately obstructed by the Israeli Government. In April, I saw the queues of hundreds of trucks filled with aid stuck at crossings into Gaza. The aid is there—it is simply not allowed to enter Gaza in the quantities needed, nor are aid workers allowed to safely distribute it. The fact that more than 300 aid workers and almost 1,000 healthcare workers have been killed in the last year is testament to that. When I left Gaza, I also visited warehouses full of aid items rejected by the Israeli authorities. I checked the list this morning, preparing for this debate. It included: wooden and metal crutches, wheelchairs, green sleeping bags, commodes, solar lamps, first-aid kits, an anaesthesia machine, generators, a bag of UNICEF footballs, bleach, and pots and pans. I could go on. The idea that a Government and military who do this should be allowed to take operational control of a humanitarian aid effort is unconscionable. I ask the Minister to be clear today that our Government oppose this, and to raise the subject with the Israelis. There is no excuse for the Israeli Government’s denial of Palestinian’s access to humanitarian aid. It is a violation of international law. Secondly, the situation for civilians across Gaza is a living nightmare. Worst of all is the situation for civilians in the north, who have been trapped for over a year now. Months ago, civilians there were eating grass and animal feed to try to survive, and it is so much worse now. I want to raise alarm at the Israeli military’s most recent forced displacement orders for civilians in the north of Gaza being told to move south. This includes orders to evacuate critically ill patients and healthcare workers from the Al-Awda, Indonesian and Kamal Adwan hospitals. This morning I saw footage of intubated children and babies in incubators in the paediatric intensive care unit at Kamal Adwan hospital; they cannot evacuate, and even if they could, there is nowhere safe to go. Does the Minister agree that this military action is intolerable, unacceptable and must end? Our new Government have taken important first steps on UNRWA, arms and the ICC. There is much more to do. It is true that the Palestinians of Gaza need a ceasefire and access to aid, and aid workers need to be able to work safely, but Palestinians do not just need aid. They have the same rights to safety, freedom and dignity as everyone else, and we in this House would do well to remember that.