Work and Pensions

Mel Stride Excerpts

Monday 20th November 2023 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from the Debate on the Address on 13 November 2023.

[Mel Stride]

There are certain things that the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), and I can agree on, and smoking is one of them. I was interested to learn that she is a former smoker. They always say that former smokers have a passionate desire to stop other people smoking, and she certainly demonstrated that. We know that one in four cancers is caused by smoking.

[Official Report, 13 November 2023, Vol. 740, c. 474.]

Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

An error has been identified in the speech I gave in the Debate on the Address. The correct statement should have been:

[Mel Stride]

There are certain things that the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), and I can agree on, and smoking is one of them. I was interested to learn that she is a former smoker. They always say that former smokers have a passionate desire to stop other people smoking, and she certainly demonstrated that. Smoking causes a quarter of deaths from cancer.