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Mr Mike READER (United Kingdom, SOC)

Photo member

Substitute
Deputy
Labour

House of Commons
GB - SW1A OAA - London
United Kingdom

Working language: English

Declarations of interests:
2026 , 2025 , 2024

Declarations of interest regarding election observations (if applicable)

Mandates

In the political groups

  • Member: Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group since 29/11/2024

In the Assembly

  • since 29/11/2024 Substitute - United Kingdom

In the committee(s) and sub-committee(s)

  • Full Member: Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (since 26/01/2026)
  • Alternate of Ms Elaine STEWART (Full Member): Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (from 27/01/2025 to 25/01/2026)
  • Alternate of Ms Michelle WELSH (Full Member): Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development (from 29/11/2024 to 26/01/2025)
  • Alternate of Ms Kate OSBORNE (Full Member): (Former) Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons (from 29/11/2024 to 28/09/2025)
  • Alternate of Lord Michael GERMAN (Full Member): Sub-Committee on Migrant Smuggling and Trafficking in Human Beings (from 28/01/2025 to 28/09/2025)

Interventions

Last speeches

23/04/2026 | 16:26:38 President, Colleagues, On behalf of our group, I want to thank Ms Valérie PILLER CARRARD for her work on this report. It is thorough, detailed, but it is also quite shocking. Across Europe, workers are being underpaid, threatened, stripped of protections, and in the worst cases, trafficked. Not in spite of our economic model. But, in some cases, because of it. Exploitation is built into subcontracting chains, hidden in shell companies, enabled by gaps in the law that employers know how to... 22/04/2026 | 19:23:31 Thank you Madam President. Colleagues, I’m speaking today in full support of this resolution. This report brings us back to a case that should never have faded from focus. Mr Sergei MAGNITSKY uncovered large scale corruption. He paid for that discovery with his life. And yet, years on, those who benefited from that crime have not been held to account. Significant sums of money linked to that fraud have not been reclaimed. What stands out to me in this report, beyond the original crime, is... 22/04/2026 | 17:43:58 Thank you, Madam President. Thank you to the rapporteur for a report that delivers exactly what it should do, keeping the focus on the universal abolition of the death penalty. I speak with the conviction of a country that abolished the death penalty over half a century ago and has never looked back. We oppose capital punishment in all forms, in all circumstances and in all places, because the death penalty is incompatible with human dignity and the right to life. Madam President, the report... 21/04/2026 | 20:15:18 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2)   President, Colleagues, The murders of Jo COX and Sir David AMESS serve as permanent reminders that the line between words and violence can, and does, get crossed. The attack on Sir Stephen TIMMS further illustrates that this is not a historical concern but an ongoing reality. Yet what concerns me today is not only those extreme cases, but the normalisation of what sits beneath them. For many in politics and public service, threats and abuse... 29/01/2026 | 17:39:57 Thank you, Chair. I want to remind us all today that we are debating a resolution on practises that cause real and lasting harm to people across Europe: conversion practises have no scientific basis. They have been rejected by every major medical and psychological body. There is clear evidence these practises are increasing depression and mental health conditions. These practises increase serious harm and suicide in our societies. These practises are torture, something this Council of Europe...

Activities