Mr. Dave Anderson (Blaydon): The hon. Member for Cambridge spoke about people going for compensation and being told by the courts that depression was not an issue that they could rule on, so they could not get compensation. I have to tell the Committee that I am massively depressed by having to keep coming back to the issue - we have been listening to the debate for nearly two years.
I am depressed when I think that civil servants told solicitors that I have been working with on this issue that pleural plaques are no more serious than freckles.
I am depressed that in real life, people like Bob Chaplin from Gateshead lost his wife, who was our mayor, this year. I am depressed that I have to keep going to fund-raisers organised by people like Anne Craig, who lost her husband. People such as Chris Knighton do tremendous work to raise money, when what they should be doing is enjoying retirement, but they cannot because their husbands have died of an asbestos-related disease.
I am depressed that no one from the Conservative party could even be bothered to come here today to give support, or argue against what is being said here.
Mr. Dismore: In fact, the Conservative party was going to attend in the guise of the hon. Member for Epping Forest (Mrs. Laing). Unfortunately there was a mix-up on the appointment to the Committee. The hon. Lady was to be substituted for the hon. Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham), but it was not done properly. I have spoken to the hon. Lady and she has indicated that, in principle, the Conservative party is content for the Bill to go through. I think that it was a mix-up rather than a deliberate desire to ignore the Committee.
Mr. Anderson: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. I am slightly less depressed - I do not know what the alternative to being even more un-depressed is. I was pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Mr. Hamilton) was so interested in the debate that he came into the room when he was not even serving on the Committee - that is how supportive he is on the issue.
But the truth is, I am more depressed than anything else by the fact that we have to come here today and listen to my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon, because it should not be him who is coming here to hold the debate - it should be the Government. Time and again, we have been told by our Government, by the Prime Minister, by the Secretary of State and by the Chancellor that, "Yes, the issue will be resolved." But it is not resolved, and it still does not look like it will be resolved.
Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton) (Lab/Co-op): Is my hon. Friend also depressed by the fact that, at the moment, those who discover that they have pleural plaques, and then go on to discover that they have a more serious disease, have the additional hurdle of having to prove that the employer is responsible? That is one of the most worrying aspects of the whole issue.
Mr. Anderson: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Of course, it is about people who are in a desperate state, having to go through all the legal and medical hoops to try to get their just deserts. The real issue, at the bottom of all this, is that none of this was made by God; it was made by man. People knew what they were doing; they knew that they were poisoning people at work; and they knew that they were not looking after people properly. They also know, every time they go to court and win, that they are escaping their just deserts. They should be looking after the people who they have poisoned deliberately and criminally. But it looks again as if they are getting off the hook today, and that is totally out of order.
The Minister said that we have lost count of the debates that we have had on the issue. She is right, but I ask her: have we lost count of the people who have died as a result of the issue since we started talking about it in October 2007? Have we lost count of the people who have been refused compensation? We should not do that. What we should do is stop looking for the middle way and behaving like the new Labour Government that have let the people down. We should start acting in the interests of our class, because this is a class issue - it is the people who have done the work who, in the main, have suffered as a result of asbestos. So I say to the Minister today: support us on the Bill and get on with the real job. If there are flaws in the Bill and if what the hon. Member for Cambridge said is still an issue - I recognise and acknowledge the work that he has done on the issue over a long period - put it right, and put it right now.
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