Christmas Adjournment

Adnan Hussain Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North) (Ind)]

I join the House in wishing you a very merry Christmas, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank all our office staff and all staff in the House for everything they do to assist us over the year.

This morning, I was at a very well-attended press conference with my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) and the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell). We listened intently to the families of a group of eight prisoners who are undertaking a hunger strike. They gave us harrowing accounts of the physical condition that those prisoners are in. I should stress that none of them has been convicted of anything; they are all remand prisoners and are all awaiting trial. Some of them have been in prison for a very long time and have at least a year to go until their trial may or may not be heard.

I am very well aware of the sub judice nature of this matter, and I will not stray into issues of the trial itself or of their guilt or otherwise. My contribution solely concerns their conditions in prison and the operation of the prison rules—a matter that I have raised several times in the House.

[Mr Adnan Hussain (Blackburn) (Ind)]

Does the right hon. Member agree that remand is not punishment? It is not meant to break bodies or silence dissent, yet we are witnessing conditions so severe that these young people feel driven to risk death simply to be heard.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

My hon. Friend is right: there is a presumption of innocence, which is the basis of the British judicial system. We have prison rules that guarantee that prisoners are fairly treated and have access to medical services when they desperately need them. My concern is about what access those prisoners have had to medical support when they have desperately needed it.

Last week, I visited Amu Gib, a prisoner from my constituency. She is still in prison and is desperately in need of medical assistance. The right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington, the hon. Member for Brent West (Barry Gardiner) and I have just written to the prison governor as follows:

“We write to you jointly today with the utmost urgency requesting a meeting with yourself…to discuss the…delay in calling medical staff and ambulances when the prisoners are in clear distress and in increasing pain; inconsistent administration of essential daily nutrients, apparently due to a lack of supply…10 day delay in acknowledging the start of the hunger strike…non-association orders between prisoners; slow communication/no communication with the families.”

The families are obviously desperately concerned. That is why all I asked of the Secretary of State for Justice, and all I asked of the Prime Minister yesterday, was an undertaking that the Ministry of Justice will meet the legal representatives of those in prison in order that their conditions can be discussed and considered. So far that has been absolutely refused.

The media in general has not reported on this, despite the drama surrounding it and the importance of the issue. I urge Members to think for a moment about how desperate a situation someone must be in to have no alternative but to take hunger strike action to bring attention to it. I hope that the Government will hear this call.

When I raised this issue last week in business questions, the Leader of the House very kindly and efficiently passed on my request to the Ministry of Justice and copied me into the letter he sent. I thank him for that, but we still have not had a substantive reply from the Ministry of Justice. I hope that when it hears this debate, the Department will recognise that it has a responsibility for the welfare and medical condition of prisoners and for the way in which they are supported in every one of our prisons. That includes people who are taking protest action because of their very strong belief in what they are trying to achieve. When the Leader of the House replies to the debate, could he confirm that he will once again ask the Ministry of Justice to get involved and meet the legal representatives of the prisoners?