§ Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North)I present a petition from constituents of Islington, North and all other constituencies. It contains the names of some 13,000 petitioners. The signatures were collected by pensioners' organisations, health campaigns, tenants' associations and such groups which believe that deaths through hypothermia are an insult to a civilised society. They are concerned that in the forthcoming winter there will be further deaths from hypothermia in our so-called civilised society.
The petition calls for a substantial increase in old-age pensions. It states that pensioner households should not 1186 be forced to pay standing charges for their gas and electricity and, above all, should have their supplies guaranteed so that they do not face the indignity of having their fuel supplies cut off, with a consequent danger to health and death from hypothermia.
The petitioners pray:
that the honourable House do urge the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services to put into law the Pensoners' Right to Heat, Light and Communications Bill to protect pensioners from fear of cold homes every winter.The petition is signed by some 13,000 people, many of them elderly—many are over 80—who have written to me in support of their demands for urgent action by the House before prorogation to protect them in the forthcoming winter.
§ To lie upon the Table.