My Lords, I am grateful for what the Minister says the Government are now doing. We all look with horror at the policies of the Israeli Government to displace the population of Gaza City, to bomb them into submission or to starve them into submission. It is appalling in the 21st century to see this …
The Minister referred to the Government’s intention to recognise Palestine. The Montevideo convention sets out in international law the four criteria that constitute a state: a defined territory, a permanent population, a functioning Government and the capacity to enter into international relations.…
My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall repeat a Statement on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Statement is as follows:
“On the ground, it is unimaginably bleak. Horrifying images and accounts will be seared into the minds of colleagues across this House. They are a…
I thank both noble Lords for their contributions. I thank particularly the noble Lord, Lord Callanan, for reminding us of the situation in Afghanistan. He is right about the plight of people there, and I expect we will make further comments on this in the next few days. As he asked me to do, I am ve…
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LordsOral Questions1 September 20258 contributions
I was at Kerem Shalom last week and saw full trucks going into Gaza and empty ones coming out. What talks have HMG had with COGAT to support the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which gets food supplies directly to the people at no financial cost, as opposed to other agencies, where food is confiscated…
My Lords, today is the 695th day in captivity of the hostages taken on 7 October. Do the Government accept that there can be no progress in addressing the tragedy of Gaza unless and until all those hostages, and the dead bodies retained by Hamas, are returned to Israel?
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply. She will be aware that the cumulative impacts of cuts to development support around the world fundamentally undermine progress on the sustainable development goals, with devastating consequences for millions of people. In light of that fact, will she ens…
My Lords, the Minister will know of my concern about the disproportionate impact that these cuts will have on women and girls. Will she agree to meet with me and a cross-party group of parliamentarians of both Houses who share my concern, when we return in September, to discuss working together to m…
We are working closely with countries that neighbour Sudan, for reasons that the noble Earl will understand. There has been enormous displacement of people. I went to Adré, on the border with Chad, and some of the accounts, particularly of sexual violence experienced by women who have walked many mi…
I often find myself asking what the point is of many of these declarations and resolutions in these situations. We need to fully understand this context, and I am sure the noble Lord does: enforcement would be great, but who is going to do it and how would it happen? We clearly need to see civilians…
My Lords, I thank the Minister, and I know how much she has been personally engaged in the region, particularly on the humanitarian elements of the ongoing and wider conflict. That is where I wish to focus my supplementary question. What assessment has she made of the impact on the minority communit…
My Lords, I commend the Arab and Turkish efforts in the most immediate ceasefire, and I agree with the most recent comments of Secretary of State Rubio from the United States. Are we co-ordinating with all three of those parties with regard to this?
The Minister will recall that, when in Grand Comm…
I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hussain, for securing and introducing this important discussion. We focused particularly on issues around water and Kashmir, and I will do my best to set out the representations that the Government have made to the Governments of India and Pakistan to bring about peace b…
My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that Answer and for the letters she wrote to me and to the noble Lord, Lord Bellingham, who I am pleased to see in his place, after he and I raised the scandal of unpaid debts and fines by diplomatic missions in the UK in Questions on 13 May. Despite th…
I am grateful to the Minister for her reply to me and to the noble Lord a week or so ago. If you add unpaid parking fines to the £150 million owed in congestion charges, the figure goes up to nearly £300 million, which is a staggering amount; that could be put to transformational use by TfL. Is the …
I see that we are back to the charming noble Lord, Lord Callanan, whom we used to know and love. The cost of this will be around £100 million a year. That is about the cost of running the NHS for five hours or the Queen Elizabeth vessel—I hesitate to say which type, so I will not try. This is excell…
The Statement will be provided in due course. You will not find anybody in this House who gives less regard to what Jeremy Corbyn thinks than I do, although there is clearly some stiff competition.
The trust fund is important, because it is right that there is some acknowledgement and a fund to sup…
I thank the Minister for her reply. As she said, India is one of the great democracies of the world, and it is even more sad that the present Government are so repressive of a range of minorities, so that even academics, if they speak up against the Government, find themselves oppressed. I particula…
My Lords, what steps are the Government taking to urge the Government of India to ratify key international human rights treaties and withdraw reservations that dilute existing commitments to align their domestic laws with international norms, particularly on caste-based and religious discrimination?
My Lords, in welcoming that final commitment, I ask the Minister whether she agrees that children who have access to nutrition, education and health services are the very bedrock on which safe societies and strong economies are built? If so, can she give positive consideration to UNICEF UK’s call th…
My Lords, I draw attention to my entries in the register on UNICEF UK and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Does the Minister recognise that the children who are most affected by problems in education, health and the other aspects that the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, raises are those who are su…
My Lords, I thank the Minister. While figures vary, Save the Children has estimated that over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred to Russia or Russian occupied territories, separated from their families and subjected to systematic efforts to erase their identity, including re-ed…
My Lords, now that there have been calls for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by the Russians, those prisoners of war have hope of freedom and returning home. Not so the 1.5 million children living in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Already, thousands have been taken to Russia, deliberately …
I thank both noble Lords for their comments and questions. I have to say that the noble Lord opposite is slightly spikier in his approach to this than his friend in the other place, the shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, who gave it a rather warmer tone of welcome than he did—but he is here to sp…
I will start by echoing the noble Lord’s comments about Fabian Picardo. He has worked tirelessly on this and is satisfied with the outcome we have reached.
Gibraltar will have its own checks that it will undertake. There will also be Schengen checks that, as I say, are similar to those at St Pancra…
My Lords, often what we categorise only as aid is also a form of national security spending. In the case of biosecurity, this is reinforced by the fact that the national risk register identifies pandemics as the greatest risk we face in the UK today, and the strategic defence review identifies engin…
My Lords, I very much appreciate the Answer that the Minister has given, but does she agree with me that there is far too much satisfaction shown by financial spokesmen on the reduction in overseas aid, given that the certain outcome is more illness and more death, particularly among women and small…
While recognising the sheer bravado of those who executed Operation Spider Web, we have to accept that action has undermined Trump’s wider initiative, jeopardised his offer on the provision of security guarantees and hardened Russia’s attitude to conflict resolution. How can we ever secure a settlem…
My Lords, from these Benches, I completely agree with the Minister’s sentiments. I think the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is absolutely wrong, and all of us who are strong supporters of Ukraine were greatly encouraged by the recent audacious attack on the Russian airfields—in which nobody was …
My Lords, that is helpful. Does my noble friend agree that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is failing to meet the desperate needs of the people in Gaza, who are endangering their own lives as they seek to get water and food? Is not the only answer that Israel must be compelled to open up to the Uni…
My Lords, first, I condemn the demonstration taking place outside Parliament as we speak. Of course, people have a legitimate right to protest, but there are reports of Members being jostled, questioned and having cameras shoved in their faces. One Member reported having water thrown over them. Inti…
My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made in another place. The Statement is as follows:
“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a Statement on the cross-government review of sanctions implementation and enforcement. I promised to update the House on thi…
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Purvis—yes, this Government like to deliver promptly. I similarly did not anticipate being back here discussing this Statement quite so soon, not least because I had it down at 6 pm in my diary, so I ran very fast in heels from the department.
I welcome the fa…
That the Regulations laid before the House on 23 and 24 April be approved. Relevant document: 24th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Considered in Grand Committee on 12 May .
My Lords, these regulations amend the Syria (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
Five months after the fall of the brutal Assad regime, Syria stands at a crossroads. The country and its economy have been decimated by more than 13 years of conflict. Vital infrastructure has been destroyed. Some 9…
I thank the Minister for her balanced and nuanced tone on these measures. These measures, unlike the previous measures, give me a bit more concern. I agree with the Minister that we want to see a Syria at peace within its borders and beyond. There should be restraint from neighbouring countries in a…
My Lords, these regulations amend the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. This instrument was laid on 23 April under powers in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. The measures in this instrument, subject to the “made affirmative” parliamentary procedure, entered into force o…
My Lords, I thank the Minister for outlining in clear turns what the Government are doing. We support these measures. The Government are rightly continuously moving to ensure that any previous omissions are corrected, as these instruments do, that new and emerging technologies are covered, as these …