Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle has carpeted David Lammy. The justice secretary has failed to respond to a request for a meeting with MPs to discuss the hunger strikers.
John McDonnell MP raised a point of order in the Houses of Parliament at 12.36pm today (10 December). He stated:
I don’t like doing this Mr Speaker, but I have to.
I wrote on behalf of several members to the Secretary of State for Justice last Wednesday. It is in relation to the hunger strike that is taking place within our prisons at the moment by Palestine Action prisoners.
Some of whom now have been hospitalised. We wrote simply asking for a meeting with the Secretary of State. We’ve not received any response. I informed his office yesterday that we will be raising a point of order. We gave it another day. We still haven’t had a response to that letter.
This is a matter of urgency and I would have expected at least the courtesy of some response, even if he’s not willing to meet us.
“Totally unacceptable” says speaker
Could I first of all say I thank the honourable member for raising his point. I always expect to take seriously correspondence from members whichever side of the house. It is totally unacceptable. I can’t make a meeting happen but I do expect people’s correspondence to be dealt with quickly and effectively.
What I would say is the treasury bench [the government] I hope will be listening very carefully and I hope they’ll make contact with the honourable member. It is as I said not acceptable. I’m getting people more and more complaining about ministerial correspondence.
We even heard of one that took twelve months. It’s not good enough. It’s not acceptable. The ministerial teams need to get their act together and make sure members of parliament quite rightly get a reply, timely.
McDonnell has also sponsored an early day motion which has now been signed by 40 MPs.
That this House expresses its extreme concern that six prisoners associated with Palestine Action have felt that they had no other recourse to protest against their prison conditions but to launch a hunger strike; and calls upon the Secretary of State for Justice to intervene urgently to ensure their treatment is humane and their human rights are upheld.
There are currently 7 prisoners on an open-ended hunger strike, which began 38 days ago. As prisoners for Palestine said:
They are reaching a critical point and their lives are at serious risk. David Lammy must immediately address this crisis, which has been created by the state, having imprisoned these individuals for up to two years before trial.
Another prisoner is on a partial hunger strike, which has serious health repercussions due to his diabetes.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
From Canary via This RSS Feed.