MPs to reintroduce bill in name of girl, 9, who died in pollution-linked death
Dubbed 'Ella's Law,' the proposed legislation is named after Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived 82ft from the busy South Circular Road in Lewisham and suffered the fatal asthma attack in February 2013.
She became the first person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death following a landmark inquest in 2020.
Sian Berry, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion will present the bill to the House of Commons with a speech on Tuesday July 1, with the aim of making clean air a human right under UK law.
If passed, the bill would require the Government to achieve clean air throughout England by January 1 2030, setting out a pathway to bring the country in line with World Health Organisation air pollution guidelines.
She has so far been backed by cross-party Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP and Independent MPs but hopes that more will support the bill and it will be picked up by the Government in the next King's Speech.
Ella's mother Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah has long campaigned for the Government to introduce stricter air pollution limits since her daughter died.
In 2022, a similar version of Ella's law was steered through the House of Lords by Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb.
Sian Berry and Rosumund Adoo Kissi-Deborah on the on the boundary of the South Circular Road in London (Green Party/PA)
It was later sponsored by Caroline Lucas MP in the Commons until Parliament was dissolved for the 2024 general election.
Ms Berry said: 'Deaths like Ella's, and the millions of lives blighted by preventable diseases caused by air pollution, can be a thing of the past if Governments start taking the right action now.
'Rosamund's campaign is gaining momentum and communities across the country are raising air pollution as a key problem in their local area, so it is great to have representatives from all parties joining together to press for a legal right to breathe clean air.
'Finally passing Ella's Law will save lives, as it will make sure we get new targets, and the funding for local areas to achieve them by cutting down on the many causes of toxic pollution, from road traffic to wood burning.'
Ms Adoo Kissi-Debrah said: 'I am delighted Sian and the cross-section of MPs are taking forward Ella's Law in parliament.
'Tackling air pollution should not be a partisan issue, it affects us all, in every constituency in the country.
'I believe that everyone has a right to breathe clean air, no matter where they live, the colour of their skin or their socio-economic background.
'We know that air pollution affects most people in this country, but the harshest effects are felt by poorer and marginalised communities.
'I hope this Labour Government will therefore take forward this Bill to protect all children and adults from the devastating effects of breathing toxic air.'
The announcement comes as campaigners, health professionals, local authorities and schools across the country will mark Clean Air Day on Thursday.
In the UK, toxic air pollution is estimated to cause between 29,000 and 43,000 premature deaths every year, according to The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollution.
Sarah Sleet, chief executive at Asthma + Lung UK, said: 'These early deaths represent a failure of government to act as current policies and targets do not do enough to protect public health.
'Toxic air has a detrimental impact on the millions of people living with a lung condition in the UK – with four out of five telling us that it makes their breathing difficulties worse.
'We need action now to protect the public's lungs.'
Ella's estate, over which Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah acts as administrator, sued the Environment Department (Defra), the Department for Transport and the Department of Health and Social Care for compensation over her 'illness and premature death'.
In October last year, three Government departments settled the claim brought by law firm Hodge Jones & Allen for an undisclosed sum, and issued a statement telling Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah 'we are truly sorry for your loss' and that no child should have to suffer as Ella did.
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'The structure of support for Reform, much like for the Brexit party and Ukip before it, very much tends to be in particular areas, described often, sometimes unhelpfully, as 'left-behind towns'. They tend to be older, have former manufacturing industries, tend to be distant from Westminster, and tend to have suffered economic loss.' Reform came second to Labour in 89 constituencies at the 2024 general election, running Starmer's party closest in the 103-year-old south Wales Labour stronghold of Llanelli, a steel town once famous for manufacturing tinplate. Most of the constituencies are in the north and Midlands. It is these seats where the 2029 battle will be most fierce. Analysis by the Guardian shows these target seats have a higher share of manufacturing jobs than the country at large, demonstrating that, despite decades of industrial decline, they remain more dependent than most on steel, car manufacturing and chemicals. 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When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, Britain's industrial base was already dwindling from its peak in the early 20th century, yet still contributed about 30% to GDP. Many areas were also still dominated by industry – including Hartlepool, Burnley and Stoke-on-Trent, where more than half of all jobs were in manufacturing. The deindustrialisation of the 1980s was, however, brutally fast as the UK transitioned to a more services-oriented economy, reliant on imported goods. Today manufacturing accounts for about a tenth of annual output. But Reform is not only targeting nostalgia for a bygone age when Britain made things. When the factories closed, the jobs they offered were either not replaced or were supplanted by lower-paid, insecure work. Whole towns have suffered economically as a result, falling behind the rest of the country despite the promises of successive governments to turn things around. Austerity made matters worse. 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The Guardian's analysis shows Reform's target seats would have an average ranking on the English index of multiple deprivation of 92, out of 543 places in total, with 1 being the most deprived. The index brings together a wide range of data sources to build a picture of deprivation, including income, work, education, health and crime rates. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Average wages are £65 a week lower than the UK average. Unemployment, economic inactivity and the rate of jobless benefit claims are higher. To track the rise of Reform, Labour researchers have been using data from parliamentary petitions as a straw poll to see if the party is growing in their local area. Analysts are poring over data from the 'Call a General Election' online poll, launched within months of the last one, and signed by 3 million people. 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