I thank my hon. Friend for her kind words, and I agree with her. I will come to the trust invested in us in a moment, but, given the effort that has been put in, the work being done by Members on both Front Benches and the acknowledgement that we all share this responsibility, perhaps there is a chance that we will get to where we want to be.
Mr Speaker has been very generous with time, so let me finish. Last week, on the day that we circulated information about today’s debate to the community, I received the following e-mail, which was addressed to all of us as MPs:
“Thank you for your continued persistence in this issue. I wish to continue to be informed of any developments but I am very bitter that my husband of 21 years who got Hep C as a child from being a Haemophiliac sadly lost his fight and passed away yesterday after years of suffering due to Hep C. He never had an apology for all the years of ill health, he was a fighter right up to the end but it was also a fight he should never have had to deal with. Again on behalf of my husband, my daughter and myself thank you for your continued support and I hope a speedy result is had for those who still continue to struggle with the physical and mental stress this situation has caused.”
Finally, a friend who was told as a child that he had HIV and hep C, and a life expectancy of four years if he was lucky, says:
“I find each and every day is like being on death row for a crime I didn’t commit. I long for the day that I can wake up in the morning and not have to fight the Gov’t for the right to have a better life. Imagine what it’s like to believe for years that what we have been given was an accident. The medical staff constantly told us ‘it was an unavoidable accident’ only for us to learn the truth for ourselves. Where did my human rights go at 12 years old. And WHY do I still not have any?
When you are stripped of your pride, your dignity, your finances, your job, career, your future, what do you have left? Your spirit and your fight, that’s what. Which is why we will be sitting there on Thursday and we will keep coming back until justice is done or the last one of us dies.”
As MPs, we have been privileged to be given the deepest, most personal details of these people and their loved ones. Some of us have been given family medical records, people’s deepest, darkest secrets and their hopes and fears. We have been privileged to have that. The words “devastation” and “struggle” appear far too often in the stories we deal with. We are not talking about a tiny handful of people, but about thousands who still feel wronged. As Members on both Front Benches prepare for an election, let us ensure that this Parliament as a whole remains committed to providing, finally, the best closure for those who trust us to do so.