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Strip Sir Cyril of knighthood over asbestos link
JARROW MP Stephen Hepburn is leading a campaign to strip larger-than-life veteran politician Sir Cyril Smith of his knighthood because of his alleged links with the asbestos industry.
Recent disclosures about the 80-year-old former Rochdale MP have caused widespread dismay.
About 4,000 people a year die from the effects of the asbestos-linked industrial disease mesothelioma, including many in South Tyneside.
That death toll has prompted Mr Hepburn to table an early-day motion (EDM) against Sir Cyril in the wake of accusations that the heavyweight politician read out a parliamentary speech supplied by asbestos firm Turner and Newall in 1981.
Sir Cyril was knighted in 1988, but the furore over his reported links with the asbestos industry has led to calls for him to have that honour taken away.
Dubbed the silent killer, mesothelioma is expected to claim the lives of dozens of South Tynesiders, including former shipyard and general industrial workers, over the next decade.
Mr Hepburn, chairman of Parliament's all-party shipbuilding and ship repair group, is outraged at Sir Cyril's apparently unrepentant views on the asbestos industry.
The motion calls on the House of Commons to "express disquiet" over letters from August 1981 revealing Sir Cyril asked Turner and Newall to supply a speech for his use during a debate about asbestos control.
Mr Hepburn's motion also calls on the House of Commons to say it "believes such action was dishonourable and not in the interests of the public nor in the finest tradition of this house", as well as expressing support for those now demanding that Sir Cyril be stripped of his knighthood.
Mr Hepburn told the Gazette: "It turned my stomach to think that an MP made a speech supplied by a company with a vested interest.
"Two people are dying every week from mesothelioma, and asbestos is a huge issue in my constituency.
"The cancerous nature of the substance was known as early as 1930, and there were curbs being put on the use of asbestos in the early 1980s.
"Cyril Smith was a very experienced MP, who must have known about these issues, and I think it was, at the very least, naive in the extreme for him to have made such a speech, supplied by a major asbestos company."
However, Sir Cyril, a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for Rochdale from 1972 until his retirement in 1992, has hit back.
He said: "This MP is from the north east, so what does he know about Rochdale? Obviously he is being briefed by someone from Rochdale.
"In my day, it was regarded as very discourteous for someone to table an EDM to which people don't have the right of a reply. Really, I'm not concerned about this at all."
Mr Hepburn added: "I think it's irresponsible for the Lib Dems to try to shrug this off, or to accuse me of publicity-seeking, when it was such irresponsibility shown by employers and some politicians in the past that led to workers with mesothelioma now paying the cost.
"Even if Cyril Smith is not stripped of his knighthood as a result of my EDM, it will have highlighted the importance of the asbestos issue."
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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