Debendox

Part of Schedule 6 – in the House of Commons at 5:49 am on 25 July 1984.

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Photo of Mr Jack Ashley Mr Jack Ashley , Stoke-on-Trent South 5:49, 25 July 1984

I congratulate my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Leicester, West (Mr. Janner) on initiating this debate. He has rendered a valuable service to the House by talking about a subject that is vital to many British people who have suffered damage. He is a great expert in this area, and the House will appreciate his expertise.

The Debendox saga has been drawn out for more than four years, and the families are still waiting for justice. I have been campaigning with them during those years, and I pay tribute to their persistence and dedication. For a change, it was pleasant to hear an hon. Member support this campaign rather than vilify it, as Conservative Members and Ministers tend to do. Vilification appears to be the standard line of the DHSS when faced with a campaign on behalf of drug-damaged people.

The former Secretary of State for Social Services—the right hon. Member for Wanstead and Woodford (Mr. Jenkin)—is known to make ingratiating speeches to the drug industry, but to snarl and snipe at its critics. The former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Services—the hon. Member for Ealing, Acton (Sir G. Young)—when I asked him about Debendox, accused those critical of the drug industry of being anti-science, anti-progress and anti-medicine.