Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2026

Debate between Kirsteen Sullivan and John Grady

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Westminster Hall

[John Grady (Glasgow East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) for securing this debate. A wonderful servant of the people of Glasgow, she is the embodiment of Glaswegian and Scottish values of public service that are shared across our family of nations.

As a Glasgow MP I welcome the Government’s support for bringing the games to Glasgow and the cross-party support for the games in the House, in Holyrood and in the city council chambers. I welcome all the work that has been done to bring the games to Glasgow. My constituency of Glasgow East is at the centre of the Commonwealth games 2026, together with Glasgow West. Its venues include the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Glasgow International Arena and the Tollcross International Swimming Centre. The games in 2014 were a great success and our games this year will be too because my home, Glasgow, is a city of warmth and hospitality. A friend is someone anywhere in Glasgow and a stranger is a friend yet to be made.

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point: Glasgow has always been known as a friendly city. Does he agree that volunteers play a fantastic role in welcoming visitors to the city for our sporting events, such as the Commonwealth games and the 2023 UCI cycling world championships?

[John Grady]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. The number of volunteers speaks eloquently to the generosity of spirit in Glasgow, across Scotland and across our family of nations. We are excited to welcome great sportspeople. I look forward to the return of a great Australian swimmer, Lakeisha Patterson, who is one of the world’s most decorated para swimmers. Some of her most notable swims took place at Tollcross: she made her international debut there when she was just 15, winning bronze, and she won gold at the world championships in Glasgow in 2015.

My constituency has long been a centre of sporting excellence. Sir Kenny Dalglish comes from Dalmarnock in my constituency. I think every hon. Member in the Chamber sends him our best wishes. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] Sir Kenny was a brilliant footballer who could sign Peter Beardsley, Ray Houghton, John Barnes and John Aldridge, then come on as a substitute and show them exactly how the game should be played. For his courage in the face of the terror of Hillsborough and all that he did, with courage, dignity and love, for the Hillsborough families, Sir Kenny is admired greatly as one of Glasgow’s finest sons and, I believe, one of Liverpool’s finest adopted sons.

One of our most notable clubs in Glasgow is Shettleston Harriers. On the doors I meet many enthusiasts for that wonderful club, founded in 1904. One of its most famous athletes is Lachie Stewart, who won the 10,000 metres gold in the 1970 Edinburgh commonwealth games. The club does wonderful work with young people in my area.

I want Scotland to do brilliantly in the games—of course I do. I wish every member of Team Scotland the best of luck. I cannot mention each team member—I might get into trouble—but I make special mention of Evi Mackie, who is in the swimming squad and trains at Lanark amateur swimming club. I am glad to speak of such a talented sportsperson because her Member of Parliament, my hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton and Clyde Valley (Imogen Walker), is a Government Whip and by tradition cannot speak in this place.

In the Commonwealth charter, the core Commonwealth principles include mutual respect and inclusiveness. The games are an opportunity to reaffirm those shared principles. A good place to start is by expressing our immense gratitude to the people from the Commonwealth who have made their homes in the United Kingdom. They have served our communities in our hospitals, in schools, in business and in so many ways. We are richer because our brothers and sisters from the Commonwealth have come to live with us and made their homes with us. Reaffirming our shared values of mutual respect and inclusiveness means that we must do much more to confront and root out racism. It is neither Scottish nor British, and it has no place anywhere in our family of nations, but we must recognise that that poison continues to infect our society and our politics. Rooting out racism is an urgent task for all of us. A society free from racism and a society of mutual respect and inclusiveness is one where we are all richer.

The games are an opportunity for us to celebrate our shared humanity and our equality. There is no better place to do so than in Glasgow, the home of the first black international footballer, Andrew Watson. His last game was in my constituency, at the first Hampden Park in Crosshill. I am pleased to say that Scotland won 5-1. I hope for similar results in the world cup and the Commonwealth games. I say to all our brothers and sisters visiting from the Commonwealth: welcome to Glasgow; we cannot wait to see you.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Kirsteen Sullivan and John Grady

Report stage
Friday 13th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that across all aspects of the Bill we cannot legislate only for those with good mental health, or for those who are loved, supported and protected? We must have at heart the best interests of the most vulnerable and those without a voice or without loved ones, to ensure that they are protected.

[John Grady]

I am obliged to my hon. Friend—that is precisely why I joined the Labour party as a 16-year-old. Faced with terrible circumstances, some people will seek an assisted death. I find it hard to accept that those will be truly autonomous choices. We must be clear that the very same circumstances that have denied people dignity and robbed them of autonomy throughout their lives will drive them to an assisted death. I find that deeply troubling, and I worry that we are placing too much confidence in concepts of capacity, autonomy and self-determination.

Everyone accepts that coercive control is common—indeed, it is incredibly common, as is domestic abuse and elder abuse. There are very clear risks of coercion. I recognise that the supporters of the Bill have sought to improve protections, and to protect people in those types of circumstance. I have anxiously scrutinised those protections, and I do not believe that they will achieve their aim. That is why the amendments are so important.

Poverty: Glasgow North East

Debate between Kirsteen Sullivan and John Grady

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[John Grady (Glasgow East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Maureen Burke), who is my neighbour, for securing this important debate. Glasgow has disgraceful levels of absolute poverty, with families who cannot afford the essentials to live: food, heat, school uniforms and clothes.

We do not help those in desperate poverty by making unaffordable promises. But despite the constrained public finances, our Government have taken action. Our last Budget raised billions in extra taxes to fight poverty. In Scotland, that means an extra £4.9 billion for the Scottish Government, so that they can tackle record NHS waiting lists and arrest the alarming decline of Scottish education. Our Employment Rights Bill tackles the evil of in-work poverty, with the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. Our Government have increased the living wage well above inflation.

Our Government have been in power for 10 months; the Tories were in power for 10 years and the SNP have been in power for 18 years—at the helm of an incredibly powerful devolved Administration blessed with significant powers. The SNP have run Glasgow city council for eight years.

[Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that many of the essential services that families rely on are delivered by local authorities, and that local authorities have had their budgets slashed year on year by the Scottish Government, which impacts their ability to protect and support the most vulnerable people in our societies?

[John Grady]

I agree. Local government has been emasculated by the Tory Governments in England and Wales and the SNP Government in Scotland. I must say that they are pretty non-discriminatory in their emasculation, because they have failed to properly fund the SNP council in Glasgow for years.

In Scotland, one cause of poverty is the shocking state of the NHS. Record waiting lists do not just delay people getting back to work; the delays mean that their conditions deteriorate to a point where they cannot return to work, and we should be incredibly angry about that. In 2007, the Scottish Government promised to establish a ministerial taskforce on health inequalities, yet Scotland continues to have the worst health inequalities in western and central Europe. On disability health checks, following a successful pilot in 2019-20, the Scottish Government committed to carry out annual health checks for people with learning disabilities in 2022. It was to be completed by 2023, but as of 2023-24, only 6.9% of eligible people had been offered a health check. The SNP’s record in Holyrood on health is absolutely shameful.

Education is an essential pathway out of poverty. However, the attainment gap in Scotland is widening, which means that kids in my constituency and others with large working-class populations have fewer life chances, and they are getting worse—it is an absolute scandal. College education is in crisis. Again, this should be a source of anger.

Glasgow city council has an opportunity to help some of the most vulnerable in Glasgow. Homeless Project Scotland has a food and night shelter in the Merchant City in Glasgow. It serves free hot meals and provides an immaculately clean shelter for homeless people. However, it has had its planning permission refused. The shelter is at serious risk of closing, but I am heartened to hear that Glasgow city council has said:

“We are available to engage...and do whatever we can to help them secure suitable property”.

I hope that the council does that. It has two golden keys to a resolution. It has an extensive property portfolio and it is the planning authority. I cannot think of an organisation better placed to help.

I helped at the shelter on Sunday night. That night, it served over 100 men and women, but because children are also homeless in Glasgow, it serves them too. On Sunday night, there was a boy—just like my boy—with his dad, a teenage boy with his mum, and a girl perhaps the same age as my daughter. If the shelter is closed, where will those children and their mums and dads get a hot meal? Where will the most vulnerable in my city get a safe bed for the night? I hope that Glasgow city council delivers on its promise.