Category: Foreign Affairs

David Mundell – 2024 Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The speech made by David Mundell, the Conservative MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

What a pleasure to have heard three such effective maiden speeches! I commend the hon. Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) for surviving not only the election, but the birth of twins. I wish his family well. I wish the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) a happy birthday. I do not think that making a speech in the House of Commons on future birthdays will have the same allure, somehow.

I regarded Virendra Sharma as a great friend in the House of Commons. I never quite saw him as a mafia don, but I did see him as a very effective operator. All new MPs, and indeed returning MPs, could learn a lot from Virendra about how to get things done in Parliament.

I commend the new teams at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence. I am particularly pleased to see the noble Lord Collins of Highbury becoming an Under-Secretary in the Department. I have worked closely with him on development-related issues over the past five years, particularly as his co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on nutrition for development. Lord Collins championed those issues in opposition; I am confident that he will now do so within the FCDO, along with the Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), whom I congratulate on her appointment.

I want to concentrate on international development, although I note that there was no specific mention of it—nor any ambition to return to spending 0.7% on it—in the King’s Speech. I commend my long-standing right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) for his efforts in the previous Government. Not only did he bring his usual vigour and drive to his time as Minister for International Development, but he stabilised what all the evidence presented to the Select Committee on International Development showed had been a chaotically managed merger of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the thinking behind the merger, we cannot pretend that it was well executed, or that the randomness of some of the decisions and the scale of the funding cuts were not seriously damaging to frontline programmes and the UK’s reputation as a reliable development partner.

Thank to my right hon. Friend, that is behind us. I listen to his warning about the need for a plan B, although the last thing those delivering aid on the frontline need is the distraction and disruption of further organisational change in the FCDO. However, I am sure that they want to know this Government’s criteria and anticipated timescale for returning to 0.7%. In opposition, Labour Members rightly highlighted the cuts to the aid budget, and the impact on that budget of spending on refugees in the UK, but in government they need to put their money where their mouth is, so I look forward to hearing some detail on that spending in the Minister’s winding-up speech.

If we are to make meaningful progress on achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030, the Government should embrace the White Paper published by my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield. It was well received across the development community in the UK and internationally. Although it is understandable that a new Government might want to put their own bells and whistles on it, I hope the core objectives of ending extreme poverty and tackling climate change will remain, along with the framework for doing so.

Mr Mitchell

I assure my right hon. Friend that there are bells and whistles from across the House in the international development White Paper.

David Mundell

Indeed, and I see the White Paper as an important part of building a new consensus on development, and of re-engaging the wider public with that agenda. A cross-party approach is the best way to build public support for development and confidence that funding is being spent effectively, which is a legitimate concern of our constituents.

All of us in this place who care about development should set ourselves the objective of increasing public engagement in the UK, as should those who work in the sector. In recent years, too many non-governmental organisations have gone down an overtly corporate route and lost touch with their members and supporters, who are often the most powerful advocates for aid in their communities.

Having listened to Mr Deputy Speaker’s guidance, I think I do not have time to go into detail on what I think the specific priorities should be, but having co-chaired the all-party parliamentary groups on HIV/AIDS and nutrition for development, I am absolutely clear that those must be at the heart of the Government’s approach to international development.

The Economist has highlighted this week that spending on nutrition delivers the best outcomes for the money spent. As the Government move forward on delivering the sustainable development goals, which we seem far from achieving by 2030, I hope that nutrition will be at the heart of the agenda, and that the Government will take the opportunity of the forthcoming Nutrition for Growth conference in Paris to restate their commitment not just to nutrition, but to international development.

July 25, 2024
Joe Powell – 2024 Maiden Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The maiden speech made by Joe Powell, the Labour MP for Kensington and Baywater, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke), and the excellent maiden speeches by my hon. Friends the Members for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) and for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher).

It gives me great delight to address this House as the new Member of Parliament for Kensington and Bayswater. I doubt that, for any of us, the last seven weeks have been easy. I know that many hon. Members will still be catching up on their sleep after the campaign trail, but having our twins born in the first week of the general election campaign took things to another level. If timing is everything in politics, that is certainly not a combination I would recommend anyone repeat—but my children will obviously have a great story to tell when they are older.

I want to take a moment to thank the team at Queen Charlotte’s hospital and across the Imperial College NHS trust for their incredible care. Our NHS staff deserve our utmost respect and support, and I hope in the future that Saint Mary’s, Hammersmith and Charing Cross hospitals will finally get what they need to become the first-class premises that patients and staff in our community deserve, including the delivering of plans for a brand-new St Mary’s hospital.

I pay tribute to my two predecessors in this new constituency. Felicity Buchan worked hard for the residents of Kensington over the past five years, and I particularly commend her for her work on the Homes for Ukraine programme. Some issues are central to our national and international security, which transcends party politics, and supporting the struggle for a free Ukraine is one of them. I am grateful for her work on this issue. In Kensington and Bayswater, we have a Ukrainian cultural centre, the Ukraine embassy and a substantial Ukrainian population. Having personally worked to support democracy and anti-corruption in Ukraine for many years, I will make sure that our Ukrainian community continues to have a strong advocate in Parliament.

I was also fortunate enough to inherit part of Dame Karen Buck’s former constituency of Westminster North. Under previous boundaries, she represented north Kensington for many years. I know from experience that tens of thousands of residents have been directly assisted by Karen with expertise and empathy. I hope I can emulate even a small part of her unwavering focus on tackling poverty and our housing crisis, whether that is by holding our social housing landlords to account, by protecting private renters, including by abolishing section 21 no-fault evictions, or by finally ending the outdated feudal leasehold system. Karen did a monumental amount of work to advance those causes, and I am sure she was absolutely delighted with their inclusion in the King’s Speech. She has always exemplified public service over self-interest. I will do my best, along with my other colleagues who are inheriting her constituency, to live up to her legacy. I know how grateful we are for her 27 years of service in this House.

Kensington and Bayswater is an incredible part of London, as many hon. Members will already know—indeed, I canvassed many of them during the campaign and have already been picking up casework in the corridors. We are an amazing community, with fantastic campaigners and organisations, businesses, entrepreneurs, charities, heritage, music, parks and schools. There is so much going for it, but there is also a deep inequality that has widened in recent years.

There is now a 19-year gap in life expectancy between a woman born in Notting Dale in North Kensington and one born in Holland Park, only a third of a mile away. That gap that has increased by five years in the past decade alone. Over 6,000 children are living in poverty and over 3,000 families are on a growing housing waiting list. We are rightly proud of our contribution to the nation’s economy in terms of growth, talent, innovation and finance in so many different industries, and we celebrate the tourists who come to visit our museums, Portobello Road and our parks, but we must also tackle the underlying causes of the inequality that prevents too many people in my constituency from reaching their full potential, whether they are housing, education or employment opportunities.

I know from the thousands of people I have met across our constituency that far too many feel like government is not working for them. They see too many politicians putting political party before country and self-interest before community. I know that trust in government and politicians has plummeted as a result, but it does not have to be this way. I have spent my career working to make democracy work better in dozens of countries around the world by supporting reformers in government to work with civil society to be more transparent, more inclusive and more accountable and to deliver for people on the priorities that they care about. In Kensington and Bayswater, that means, for example, getting a grip on the dirty money in luxury property that still stains our community.

Despite recent progress in legislation, and despite the leadership that Baroness Hodge, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and many others have shown on this topic, we still have in our constituency one of the highest numbers of anonymously owned properties registered in tax havens, with loopholes allowing autocrats and kleptocrats to continue shielding their ownership. Many of those properties sit empty, hurting our local businesses and schools and hollowing out our sense of community. I agree that those that are frozen under sanctions should be utilised as soon as possible, so I am determined to build on our Kensington Against Dirty Money campaign and continue advocating for London to end its reputation as the dirty money capital of the world, and instead become the anti-corruption capital of the world.

There is no worse example of what happens when government stops listening to people and when transparency and accountability are discarded than what happened at Grenfell Tower over seven years ago. Seventy-two people lost their life in an entirely preventable tragedy, yet we still do not have truth, justice and change for the bereaved, survivors and affected community. These are people whose lives were changed forever on 14 June 2017 and who have had to wait far too long for justice and for those responsible to be held to account. In the coming weeks, the second phase of the public inquiry will report. I know that hon. Members here will join me in looking to those recommendations to ensure that a tragedy like Grenfell can never happen again.

I warmly welcome the inclusion in the King’s Speech of the duty of candour law for public servants. I applaud the effective campaigning of those affected by Grenfell, Hillsborough, infected blood and Windrush, and of others who have suffered because of an unacceptable defensive culture across many of our public institutions. I hope we can look at further measures to ensure robust oversight of the implementation of the recommendations from those inquiries.

Kensington and Bayswater is a special place making a huge contribution to our national life in so many ways. My hope is that, under this Labour Government, we will become a fairer place too, building on our strengths and addressing the inequalities that have held us back. It will not be easy and it will not happen overnight—as a QPR fan, I have learned over many years to be realistic—but we have an opportunity now to restore faith and trust in government and democracy, and to restore our reputation internationally too.

July 25, 2024
Alec Shelbrooke – 2024 Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The speech made by Alex Shelbrooke, the Conservative MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

It is a real pleasure to follow the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher). It is also a great pleasure to have another Yorkshire Hammer in the House, but let me give him some friendly advice: he might not want to have my neighbour, the hon. Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon), sitting behind him next time. If the hon. Gentleman does give him any trouble, he should just ask to compare their teams’ European cabinets.

As the current leader of the UK delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, I want to say something about defence in an ever-changing world. I hope there is not too much of a pause in the defence reviews that have already taken place, and there has been some debate about that. I understand why a new defence review is taking place under a new Government, but I think it worth noting that we have moved to a 360° view of NATO and the threats that it faces.

We may well see a change of Administration in the United States, and with any change of Administration it takes time to work out the direction that the new Administration want to take. I do not feel as fearful as some about President Trump returning to the White House, because during his last tenure he invested heavily in NATO and did not undermine it. We know that while his habit is to create great upset and make big statements, the reality turns out to be somewhat different, and he works towards building on that. Nevertheless, this is something that will have to be considered. What Trump did succeed in doing was getting European allies to build their defence strategies and budgets, and we cannot escape the fact that the demands on the defence of Europe are growing and growing, not just on land but at sea.

We know that Russia has mapped the bed of the North sea. It has mapped the fuel pipelines and the data cables, and obviously the surface platforms are at risk. We know that the Royal Navy and our allies spend a great deal of time counteracting that, and I am proud that the Conservative Government established a huge shipbuilding programme the likes of which had not been seen for very many years. It provides long-term contracts that allow the shipyards and the companies to invest, and, crucially, allow the Royal Navy to be the capable force that it needs to be. That must be key not just to the maintaining of a maritime nation, but to where the maritime interests lie in the world.

Climate change has already been mentioned today. An undeniable fact in that connection is the opening up of the High North and the north-east passage. Another undeniable fact is that the Russians have been rebuilding and revamping bases along their northern shoreline, and yet another undeniable fact is that the Ukraine war that Vladimir Putin illegally started, thinking he would be able to walk in and dominate that country in a very short space of time, has decimated his economy in the long run. Going to war will always decimate an economy, but this war has decimated Russia’s military, costing it a huge number of military personnel, and has made Putin reliant on other countries, such as China. It is notable that before the Ukraine war Chinese vessels never really went into the High North, but they do now because Russia lets them in.

Tension will build in the High North, and we have to be ready for it. I think we are ready for it—we have taken part in vital exercises in the area—but that just goes to show how vital the Royal Navy is. It is, of course, also vital that we have a functioning air force, and that we continue with the procurement of F-35s. Russian jets try to violate our airspace—certainly NATO airspace—on, I think, a daily basis, and they need to be met with confrontation. NATO is a deterrent rather than an aggressive force, but deterrence can only happen if those concerned feel the consequences of the balance of power. I believe that NATO is strong enough at the moment. No other combined maritime force in the world constantly has at least 36 ships patrolling the sea; that is what NATO is able to bring together. However, it is vital that when we carry out the strategic defence review, we analyse not just what we need in maritime terms today, but what will come in the future; not just how we patrol the airspace today, but what will come in the future.

We must also address the position of the Army, which has been under discussion for decades. It is all very well to talk about hollowing out the armed forces and going for the lowest number of personnel. This was, in many ways, the post-cold war dividend, and that dividend has gone, as a number of us warned that it would before the conflict in Ukraine, and it will not come back. That leads to some tough choices. There has to be honesty in the conversation about how much of our GDP we should be spending, because it will add up to 100%, and that means that the budget must be cut somewhere else. I am proud that we have the track to get to 2.5%, but, as I was trying to ask in my intervention on the Secretary of State, if this review adds up to more than 2.5%—if it says, “This is what we need to be able to defend a changing arena”—will the Government spend that money? We cannot on one the hand say that we aim to get to 2.5%, rather than giving a specific date, and on the other hand say, “We are going to have a strategic defence review, but what if it costs 3%?” Will this actually be achieved? That is an important question.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD)

The right hon. Member is making a most interesting speech. Does he agree that the present size of the British Army is militating against recruitment? A great many people who might be good in the Army and have considered it as a career option are saying, “Actually, if I could get another job I might do better,” and that is very, very dangerous.

Sir Alec Shelbrooke

Recruitment has become a big problem in the armed forces, especially now that unemployment is at historically low levels. One of my colleagues said to me recently that it was not officers but the ranks who were difficult to recruit. I do not have an immediate answer on how we can change that, but I can say this. In my short tenure as the procurement Minister at the MOD, it became blatantly obvious within 24 hours from looking at the letters and written questions on my desk that accommodation is one of the biggest issues facing the services. I make no criticism of any of my successors or predecessors in that role for trying to handle the issue of accommodation, because I quickly discovered just how difficult it is. I wanted to make front-loading the capital expenditure budget a priority in order to sort out accommodation, but there are so many legal hurdles in the deals that have been done in the past that it becomes difficult.

I want to put on the record that I see service accommodation as a defence capability, and it should be treated like all other defence capabilities. If we are asking our service personnel to go to war, do we want the last thing they hear before they go on to the battlefield to be that their family are moving out and going somewhere else because they cannot live in such conditions any more? Do we want the last thing our personnel on Trident hear before disappearing for four months to be, “I’m leaving; I’m going back to my family home with the kids. We can’t live like this”? That means it has become an issue of operational capability. We need our highly trained and highly professional personnel to know that they are being looked after, which starts with accommodation.

I wish the Government all success in trying to grasp this issue and take it forward, because it is exceptionally complex. I am looking at the shadow Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), who was one of my successors. I know that he personally tried very hard to sort this issue out and carry it forward. I know there is a body of work taking place, but this is a priority and needs to be sorted. I hope that the new Minister for the Armed Forces, the hon. Member for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard), makes good on the 50 written questions he submitted on 23 and 24 May this year about accommodation, and on the several questions tabled by the now Secretary of State. They obviously recognise that it is a huge concern, and we look forward to finding out how they will approach that as soon as possible.

I will move on to foreign affairs. Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most contentious issues in the previous Parliament, as well as outside and during the general election, was the war between Israel and Gaza, which has inflamed passions on all sides. I fear that the general election campaign showed that some of the militant pro-Palestinian protesters are stepping over the mark. That does not apply to all pro-Palestinian protesters—there are very different sets of people—but I am talking about the militant pro-Palestinian protesters who seek to use fear and intimidation to try to achieve their objectives.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I have not given notice to the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) about what I am about to say, but it is not a criticism, so I hope she will accept it. As she pointed out in her acceptance speech, it was one of the most horrific campaigns she had ever been through. Nobody putting themselves forward in a democracy, let alone for public service, should have to experience what not just she but several other people experienced. Do you know what most of them had in common, Mr Deputy Speaker? They were women. Female candidates in the election, especially Labour female candidates, had the most horrific, misogynistic abuse hurled at them over the issue of Gaza and Israel, and we have to call that out.

Everybody elected to this place is here as a parliamentarian to speak up for the things they passionately believe in, and no one should ever dismiss someone’s passionate views about a particular subject, even if we ferociously disagree with them. However, it is incumbent on all of us to call it out when we see, in what should be a fair democracy, people having their tyres slashed, being screamed at and being intimidated, which happens to women especially. If we want to have a strong democracy, we have to make sure that this House says with one voice that everybody who wants to stand for Parliament, whatever their views, has the right to campaign safely and put their views across. As a country, we have fallen a long way behind that. Whatever anybody’s view, we have to call that out.

I am a strong defender and supporter of Israel. I believe that Israel has a right to exist, and a right to defend itself. I believe that a close eye must be kept on whether international humanitarian law is being broken. If it is, the people who are responsible must be brought before the courts and prosecuted.

The hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) made a very powerful speech, and I listened intently to every word she said. Her personal experiences bring value to this House, as she is able to talk about what the Israel-Gaza conflict means to her, given that her family are on the ground. Who in this House does not want to see a ceasefire? We all want to see a ceasefire, but there are two sides to the coin. It is still Hamas’s objective to wipe out the state of Israel, which we have to address. We have to keep a balance. As the shadow Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), said, a pogrom was launched on 7 October, and we must make absolutely sure that what happened on that day cannot happen again.

This House has always pushed for a two-state solution, but it cannot be down to Israel alone to make the ceasefire happen. I will carry on defending Israel’s right to defend itself and maintain its security. I will also carry on defending international law and making sure it is abided by. If it is not, I will hold people to account. But the call for a ceasefire cannot just be on one side. Hamas have to release the hostages and give up their objective of wiping out Israel, and then we may be able to move things forward.

July 25, 2024
Keir Starmer – 2024 Speech at the Opening Plenary Session of the European Political Community

The speech made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, at Blenheim Palace on 18 July 2024.

Friends, fellow Europeans…

Welcome to Britain…

And welcome to the splendour of Blenheim Palace.

I hope you enjoyed the weather, the drive, and the architecture of this beautiful place.

Thank you so much for being here.

It is of course the birthplace of Winston Churchill …

And we stand for the values that he embodies around the world.

Liberty and democracy, yes, of course…

But also defiance and resolve in their defence.

And today, as a new storm gathers over our continent…

We choose to meet it in that same spirit…

And we choose to meet it together.

And that is the choice of the government that I lead. Now two weeks old.

We want to work with all of you…

To reset relationships…

Rediscover our common interest…

And renew the bonds of trust and friendship…

That brighten the fabric of European life.

And the task is urgent…

Because our security is on the line.

Every day Ukraine fights to protect not just the Ukrainian people…

But the European people.

A continent where our belief…

In freedom, democracy and the rule of law…

Was hard-won.

And that wants to live in peace.

So President Zelenskyy, in your struggle to uphold those values…

I, we, salute you, once again.

Have no doubt: we will stand with you for as long as it takes.

Because I was struck by something that you said in fact during the NATO summit last week.

When you said that Ukraine needs more air defence, and then you said used words: before the new school year starts.

And that really struck me…

Because returning to school after the summer break…

That should be a moment of joy and excitement for children.

New uniforms, new exercise books, seeing how much their friends have grown over the summer holidays, and reuniting with friends.

How could anyone consider that them a target?

So our first task here today…

Is to confirm our steadfast support for Ukraine…

To unite once again behind those values that we cherish…

And to say, we will face down aggression on this continent – together.

Because the threat from Russia reaches right across Europe.

Many of us have seen attacks on our own democracy.

People targeted on our streets.

Military planes entering our airspace.

Ships patrolling our coastlines.

And in Moldova and the Western Balkans…

The threat is obviously even more acute.

So this is the moment for us all to do more.

And I’m proud of Britain’s role in maintaining European security.

Through NATO, through the Joint Expeditionary Force, and more.

We stand together.

We guard Europe’s frontiers.

And now we must find new, more ambitious ways of working together…

Firing up our industries…

Meeting, not just the military challenge….

But the challenge to our economic, cyber and energy security as well.

I take a practical view of how the UK can meet this moment.

I’m not driven by ideology – but by what is best for my country.

And so we will strengthen our existing relationships…

And we will build new ones.

This includes resetting our relationship with the EU.

Because I believe that the UK and the EU…

Working together as sovereign partners…

Are a powerful force for good across our continent.

For peace, for security, for prosperity…

For all our people.

We have shown this I think in the G7…

Where we are using Russian assets…

To ensure they pay for the devastation they have brought to Ukraine…

We’re placing unprecedented sanctions on Russia…

And reducing our collective dependence on Russian oil and gas.

And I think we should take pride in the steps our continent has taken on this.

But now we must see the job through.

We must use this moment…

To accelerate towards clean energy…

Support Ukraine to meet its energy needs ahead of winter…

And tackle the ships that are helping Russia to evade sanctions.

We know what we can achieve together.

But it’s also time that we bring this resolve to another challenge facing our continent…

The vile trade of people smuggling.

Let’s be frank – “challenge” – is the wrong word.

It is now, I think, a crisis.

As we speak, as we gather here…

A criminal empire is at work in every country represented here today.

Profiting off human misery and desperation.

Prepared to send infants, babies, pregnant mothers…

Innocent people…

To their deaths.

And last week four more souls…

And actually, last night another one…

Were lost in the waters of the English Channel.

A chilling reminder of the human cost of this vile trade.

And this summit is an opportunity to set a new path on illegal migration.

To transform the way that we work together…

On border security…

And law enforcement.

And to say, together: no more.

And in the UK our new Border Security Command will work in partnership with you.

We must combine our resources…

Share intelligence, share tactics…

Shut down the smuggling routes…

And smash the gangs.

Before I came into politics, I was the Director of Public Prosecutions in Britain…

A job I held for five years.

And I saw the work that can be done, across borders…

On issues like counter terrorism.

Sophisticated gangs working across our borders.

And we used those same techniques to take those gangs down to ensure the safety of citizens across Europe.

And so I for one simply do not accept and will never accept that we can’t do the same with the smuggling gangs…

That somehow, they are the only gangs that can operate across Europe with impunity.

I just never will accept that, having been involved myself in the taking down of terrorist gangs.

So we must do more, together.

We must also do more to tackle the problem, of course, at source…

To recognise the root causes…

We know what they are.

Conflict, climate change, extreme poverty.

The crisis we face is the fault of the gangs – no question.

But the decisions people take to leave their homes cannot be separated from these wider issues.

It is global inequality…

And that deserves our attention as well.

So let me say something very clearly.

We are resetting our approach here.

This Government will not commit taxpayer money to gimmicks…

We are here to serve our country in the national interest…

In pursuit of solutions that will actually deliver results.

And more than that…

We will approach this issue with humanity…

And with profound respect for international law.

And that’s why my government scrapped the unworkable Rwanda scheme on day one.

And it’s why we will never withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Churchill himself was among the chief architects of the Convention.

It was built on the blood bond of 1945…

And our shared sacrifice for freedom.

I myself first read about these principles of the Convention and international law in a law library in Leeds, well 40 years ago now.

And that inspired me in everything I have done since then…

And I still draw strength from it and value from it everyday.

Because they speak about the dignity of every human being…

And that word “dignity” is there in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the most important words in it.

Dignity of every human being.

The very essence of what it is to be human.

And that is our legacy…

And so the nations of Europe must lead again today.

Together we have the opportunity to make the world safer, fairer and more prosperous.

So let’s use this moment…

To do more for Ukraine…

Defend our democracies…

Secure our energy supplies…

And tackle illegal immigration…

It is a pleasure today, on behalf of my country…

To extend a hand to all of you.

To say that, under my leadership…

Britain will be a friend and a partner….

Ready to work with you.

Not part of the European Union…

But very much a part of Europe.

Not focused on the differences between us…

But on the values that we share…

United by our determination to defend them…

And certain about what we can achieve together.

And now I’d like to invite a true champion of European freedom…

…to address the plenary.

Our friend, President Zelenskyy.

Slava Ukraini!

July 24, 2024
David Lammy – 2024 Statement on the Ten-year Anniversary of Downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17

The statement made by David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, on 17 July 2024.

On the tenth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a passenger plane travelling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, my thoughts remain with the families and friends of all those who died. 298 innocent people, including 10 British nationals, lost their lives that day – future dreams and ambitions suddenly destroyed.

A decade on from that dreadful day, the devastating impact of this tragedy is still felt by thousands around the world, as they continue to mourn their loved ones. I remain grateful to the Joint Investigation Team for their efforts to uncover the truth. The conviction of 3 individuals in relation to the downing of MH17 was an important step in securing justice for the families of the victims.

All States have a responsibility to cooperate in full with efforts to establish accountability, truth and justice for the families. We deeply regret the Russian Federation’s decision to withdraw unilaterally from ICAO proceedings on MH17 and we continue to call on Russia to cooperate in full with efforts to establish accountability so that justice can be fully delivered.

July 23, 2024
Joe Biden – 2024 Statement on Not Standing for Re-Election as President

The statement made by Joe Biden, the President of the United States, on 21 July 2024.

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We’ve made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We’ve provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years.

Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do – when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.

July 21, 2024
Lee Pitcher – 2024 Maiden Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The maiden speech made by Lee Pitcher, the Labour MP for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

I thank the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran).

Like many of us, I found myself standing on the Terrace here in Parliament on my first day, with my back to the stunning Palace of Westminster and the splendour of Big Ben, and the London Eye majestically circling with the buzz, excitement and energy of the visitors here in this great capital city. There I was, looking out across the very still River Thames towards the east end of London, home to the world’s greatest football team, West Ham United, who, I remind everyone, did bring home some European silverware quite recently. But in truth, I was not thinking about the London Stadium at the time; I was looking towards the place where I was born and spent my early years.

I recalled the 14-year-old in his first year of his GCSEs who slept on a double mattress on the floor, alone with just his mum and his sister; a little lad who had nothing left to his name and who was regularly bullied at school for the length of his trousers. I can tell the House that there is nothing more stark, more devastating and more heartbreaking than seeing your mum’s face—a very proud lady whose primary focus in life was to look after her babies—as she found herself working tirelessly but still losing the home that we lived in. Those times were rough, but I was so fortunate to have the very best and most inspiring women role models around me: my mum and my sister. They showed me that strength of character, resilience, and the importance of kindness regardless of the situation is what will carry you through.

At that time, what we had were many friends and families in the community who rallied round to give us support and a roof over our heads. That told me that there were people out there who cared—people who would give you hope, and hope is what we needed. That experience absolutely changed my life and set a direction of travel for me to work hard, to do well and to never ever want to see anyone in that position again. And here I am today on 18 July, my 47th birthday—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you! I stand here in the shadows of the greats in this country that I love with my every being, having been given the chance to make sure I deliver that promise to myself and to my constituents that my situation will never happen to another child.

Today is a super special day, as was 5 July, when I became first ever Member of Parliament for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme. Let me take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work of Andrew Percy, who residents spoke of so fondly on the doorstep as a great constituency MP, and of Nick Fletcher in Don Valley, whose work promoting mental health in men is very dear to my heart, having lost a cousin a few years ago. Nick also campaigned for Doncaster airport, which is a key priority of mine too. I will not stop working closely with the Mayor of Doncaster, the South Yorkshire Mayor, officers and others to see planes flying over the skies of Doncaster again.

It really isn’t hard to see why we all cared so much for my beautiful constituency, and I will tell you a little bit about why I adore it. Thirty years ago I met my best friend, my wife, who is from the constituency. She introduced me to Yorkshire, and I fell in love with the place in the same way that I fell in love with her at 18 years of age. She has been by my side ever since. Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme is my home. My family have grown up in the constituency, my children have gone to school there and, alongside work, I have volunteered with wonderful organisations.

There are many unsung heroes in the area who, over many, many years, have given back to our community. I have seen the work of great places such as the Doncaster Lions, whose motto could not align any more to our own values: “We serve”. They tirelessly walk the streets at Christmas every single year with Santa and his sleigh to bring smiles to children who otherwise would not be able to afford to go and see him in his grotto. I also have first-hand experience of the impact of Thorne’s local community radio station, TMCR, which brings a ray of sunshine through music to residents across the airwaves, easing loneliness and creating a sense of family. As a school governor at Travis St Lawrence school for several years, I have seen how the monumental effort of staff and teachers gives children the very best start in life.

Community spirit can be found in every single pocket of the new constituency, from the urban, proud former mining areas and charming towns of Doncaster East, to the fertile, agricultural farming areas, quaint towns and villages of the Isle of Axholme in north Lincolnshire, through to the thriving local independent businesses and attractions, such as Yorkshire wildlife park—I give a big shout out to Rocco the baby rhino who I met last weekend. Like Rocco, I see what I have in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme as something rare and special that must be looked after, because mine is an area where heritage and tradition have shaped the towns and villages. I am keen to ensure that the unique identities of the different areas are respected, embraced and enjoyed for generations to come.

The Isle of Axholme was once an inland island, surrounded by streams, rivers and meres until it was drained in the 1600s. It has amazing historic architecture—you really need to come and see it—such as Normanby Hall and the Old Rectory in Epworth, which was home to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. It is also home to the Haxey hood. Has anyone heard of that? It is a tradition that dates back to the 14th century. Lady de Mowbray was riding towards Westwoodside, when her silk hat flew off her head in the wind and 13 local farmworkers ran after it. Eventually, one of them caught it but was too shy to give it back. He handed it to another gentleman who passed it back to her. The whole thing caused such amusement that she dedicated 13 acres of land so that it could be re-enacted every single year. So I say why don’t we, after Prime Minister’s questions, get together in a rugby scrum, as they do every year, and see if we can push the hood back to where it needs to be!

We also have Keadby, home to the power stations; the Stainforth and Keadby canal; Crowle, with its quaint square and Gothic revival market hall; and lovely rural villages such as Luddington, Ealand, West Butterwick, Garthorpe and Fockerby. In Eastoft, I recently met a couple of farmers who told me that we have the best growing land in the world. Doncaster East comprises wonderful market towns such as Bawtry, a 12th century port, and Thorne, mentioned in the Domesday Book; mining settlements such as Dunscroft, Moorends and Rossington; Hatfield, the place where Northumbrian King Edwin was killed in the battle of Hatfield Chase; Woodhouse, the birthplace of Corporal William J Harper, a local hero who won a Victoria Cross in world war two; and Dunsville, Lindholme, Bessacarr, Branton, Finningley, Austerfield and Auckley, which all have their own enticing charm.

For all the greatness in my home constituency, my team and I have real challenges ahead. The King’s Speech paves the way for policies and legislation to facilitate change in a lot of areas. For the mum who came to the constituency pregnant five years ago and still has not got her child an NHS dental appointment, I say that there are 700,000 new appointments to come. For the dad I spoke to while he was getting his children ready to visit their grandma—his wife was upstairs in bed; she had had a delay in her chemotherapy treatment and wanted to not see that happen to others because of the anxiety it caused—I say that there will be 40,000 new appointments per week and a huge reduction in NHS waiting times. For the grandad who endured young adults trying to break into his home repeatedly—pretty much every day—and threatening him with knives, I say that there will be 13,000 more police officers.

For the children I spoke to at the New College hustings, who wanted new industries and new jobs to excite them, I say that there will be a clean energy company, with science, technology, engineering and maths jobs for a future generation. For the parent with the child with special educational needs who got no mental health support or diagnosis for several years, I say that there is a commitment to massively increase mental health provision. For the school leaver who can never envisage having a home for the future or the ability to buy one, I say that there is a commitment to jobs and a commitment to build 1.5 million homes. For my mum, waiting for a bus that is delayed or never turns up, I say that powers will be devolved to regional mayors to take buses back into public control. For the children who go to school hungry and do not have clothes on their backs—there are plenty in my constituency, where the relative poverty rate is 19.7%, according to the House of Commons Library—I say that there are breakfast clubs for all. Energy costs will be reduced by GB Energy, there will be economic stability and growth as a result of projects such as a national wealth fund, and planning reform will create roles and jobs.

What I do from now on will require personal, role-model, visionary leadership, but it will also require a team effort. When I started my career as a sewer baiter, lifting manholes and putting down bait to kill rats, I was given some advice by the CEO of a company, who said, “Lee, to be successful you need to build the best team around you, and to do that you need to focus on brains. Do not focus on race, religion, age or sexual preference; focus on getting the best brains around you, and you will be successful.” Over the years, I have learned about the need to supplement that with passion in the heart, for those with the right passion and the right brains are bound to be successful.

I will work tirelessly across the private, public and voluntary sectors, with my wonderful volunteering team and with residents, to bring a better today and an even better tomorrow for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme. No family should do go to bed at night and have nightmares about what tomorrow might bring; they should sleep well, dream big, and wake up to opportunities galore. I do not underestimate the challenge that lies ahead, but I can tell the House that that 14-year-old without a home never did so either, and let me bear witness to that as I stand here today. I say to every single resident of Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, “Thank you for putting your trust in me. I am your voice here in Westminster, I am your voice in the constituency, and together we will make a difference.”

July 19, 2024
Layla Moran – 2024 Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The speech made by Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

May I start by warmly congratulating the new the hon. Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan)? For a time I lived in Acton, close to her constituency, and when she spoke about the diversity and warmth of the area, I certainly recognised that. I have no doubt that she will be an enormous asset to this place. Many congratulations, and welcome.

I also welcome the Secretary of State for Defence and his team to their places, and the Foreign Secretary and his team to theirs. They include my fellow Oxford MP, the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the right hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds); it is wonderful to see her there. I also welcome the shadow Defence Secretary, the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), and, in particular, the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), whose promotion I hope we can all agree is long overdue.

Under boundary changes, Oxford West and Abingdon has taken in Dalton barracks and Shippon, so I am now also the MP for a number of armed forces families. I pay tribute to them, and to all our armed forces and their families who so willingly give their lives over to service to this country.

I am very pleased that foreign affairs and defence has been chosen as the theme for the second day of the debate. We are living in a world that feels so much less stable and less secure than it has ever felt, certainly in my lifetime. Only a few days ago, we saw the horrific attempted assassination of an American presidential candidate; Putin continues to wage war in Ukraine; Xi Jinping continues his muscular foreign policy aims, threatening Taiwan and continuing to oppress people in Hong Kong and Xinjiang; and as has been mentioned, a rising tide of populism is sweeping across Europe.

The Liberal Democrats support many of the priorities set out in the King’s Speech. Support for NATO, support for Ukraine and resetting our relationship with the European Union are all vital to achieving security and stability. We aim to work constructively with anyone in government who seeks to return Britain to its position as a leading light on the international stage, in particular in the area of development, on which I associate my remarks with those of the shadow Foreign Secretary. We agree that there is a huge opportunity. We want a return to spending 0.7% on development, and we think that a new Department is the way to ensure the muscle that is needed to give that oomph. Nevertheless, we wish all the Ministers well in their endeavour to find a place for development in the Foreign Office.

I was especially pleased to hear mention of the middle east and the two-state solution. For reasons that I am sure are obvious, that is what I will focus my remarks on. It has been nearly 300 days since the horrific Hamas attack on 7 October. Since then, hostages have still not returned home. The death toll in Gaza has reached 38,000. The vast majority of the dead are women and children. There are, of course, thousands more under the rubble who are left out of the statistics. Scientists fear that the death toll will soar. A letter in the medical journal The Lancet predicted that if we take into account indirect casualties of war—people who die of malnutrition, a lack of medication and unsanitary living conditions—the total number of deaths could climb as high as 186,000.

The children of Gaza have suffered the unimaginable. Alexandra Saieh, the head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children International, said:

“They are being dismembered. They have been burnt alive in tents. They have been killed due to crashing apartment building blocks. They have been also killed by preventable diseases and illnesses and denied medical assistance. Children in Gaza are just suffering horrifically.”

In the first three months of this conflict alone, 1,000 children had one or both legs amputated; that meant more than 10 children lost one or both legs every single day. We need that immediate ceasefire. We needed it six months ago.

There is only one way to end the killing, to get those hostages safely home and to get that humanitarian aid in. None of that can happen until the ceasefire is achieved, but we must also understand that a ceasefire is not enough for peace. Peace is not just the absence of war. It is hope that is shared—hope for a future in which Palestinians and Israelis live in security and dignity. That is what we mean by a two-state solution. That is the real prize.

I have been relieved to be a Liberal Democrat during the last few months. In all seriousness, when my family were under siege in that church in Gaza, the professional and the personal collided completely. I got the devastating news in November that I had lost a family member; my cousins texted me to tell me, and all they asked for was that ceasefire. That is what the Liberal Democrats have consistently argued for, because when it comes to foreign policy, we ground our approach in liberal principles of human rights and the international rules-based order.

Jeremy Corbyn

I congratulate the hon. Member on a powerful speech. I agree with her call for an immediate ceasefire. Does she believe that we should also halt arms supplies to Israel, which are being used to bomb Gaza and make us and the United States complicit in the killing of so many people in Gaza?

Layla Moran

I thank the right hon. Member for his intervention. I will come to exactly those points and will expand on them.

An approach based on the international rules-based order and humanitarian law led to our being on the right side of the argument on apartheid in South Africa, on Hong Kong, and indeed on the war in Iraq. It guides our approach now. I am pleased—delighted, even—that the Government have included reference to the all-important two-state solution in the King’s Speech, and I am very much heartened by the their change in tone. But words are meaningless without concrete action. It is vital that we start to think about what we need to do the day after that ceasefire is secured, because at some point it will be—we all know that. Hamas are extremes in this debate, but so is Netanyahu. Neither wants peace. It is in neither of their interests. It is the framing of one versus the other that has proved to be so insidious in this debate.

There are plenty of voices in Israel, Palestine and beyond who are partners in peace and are actively calling for it. Protest in Israel is growing, with demonstrations held in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, clamouring for a deal to be done to bring those hostages home. They often link that to a ceasefire, and the release of Palestinian political prisoners such as Marwan Barghouti. That wider movement for peace is growing.

I want to tell the House about two friends of mine, Maoz and Magen Inon. They lost their parents on 7 October when Hamas targeted their house with a close-range missile. I have been twice to Netiv HaAsara—once before and once since—and I saw their house and their burnt out car. It was heartbreaking. But rather than turn to hatred, they chose instead to spend their whole lives talking about peace, because they do not want this to happen to anyone else’s family. There is only one way to guarantee that: peace and a shared future. In them and in all those Israeli peace activists—a growing movement—I see that shared future.

This Chamber and this Government need to understand that people like Maoz and Magen are embers in a nascent fire. They need the oxygen of political support to survive and grow. The same is true for Palestinian peace activists Hamze and Ahmed, who I recently shared a panel with—all of us children of the Nakba, but all of us willing to devote our futures to stopping the endless taking of lives to avenge a past we no longer want to keep resurrecting over and over again. These are the voices that deserve to be amplified, and this is the kind of rhetoric that I hope we can all follow—bringing people together, not seeking to divide. I say that with some disappointment, because in the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition in response to the King’s Speech yesterday, he did not mention Palestine at all, only Israel. We cannot do that. We must understand that we cannot have security and freedom for Israel without security and freedom for Palestine. That is why the mention of the two-state solution is so vital.

Let us start with the basics: a two-state solution needs two states. That is why we must recognise the state of Palestine, along 1967 borders, immediately without preconditions. I have laid a Bill in every parliamentary Session since I was elected, and I will do so again. Some 140 countries have already taken this step, including Ireland, Spain and Norway just this May. If the UK were to join them, it would send a powerful message to the Israeli Government that we are serious about two states—something that Netanyahu has rejected. It would also send a message to the Palestinian people, who are desperate for hope that the international community—in particular the UK with our long-standing historical obligations to the region—will help them achieve that future.

Many will say—and they are right—that recognition is not enough. One of the biggest barriers to peace are the illegal Israeli settlements in the west bank. In 2024, Israel illegally seized 23.7 sq km of Palestinian land in the occupied west bank. That is more than all the land it has taken over the past 20 years combined. These settlements are illegal under international law. They exacerbate tension and they undermine the viability of that previous two-state solution. We have called for individual violent settlers who breach international law to be sanctioned. I was pleased that the then Conservative Government took some small steps and sanctioned individual settlers, but I urge the Government to go further. The Liberal Democrats have called for sanctions to include Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and the connected entities that provide support or enable those extremist individuals. Since 2021, we have also called for the UK to ban trade with illegal settlements, because if they are illegal under international law, we should put a firm marker in the sand.

To come to the point made by the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), the trade of British weapons needs to be handled with great care. Our policy is not to single out Israel—that is important. Our policy is built on ensuring that no British-made arms are sold to any countries that are in potential breach of human rights law. That is why we believe that we should look at our arms export trade with Israel. Despite repeated calls, the Government never released their own legal advice on potential breaches of international law in this conflict, but given that there is a case to answer at the ICJ and the ICC, the British public deserve to know whether the Government are breaching their own arms export regime. The Foreign Secretary, when he was shadow Foreign Secretary, asked for that legal advice to be released; I am curious to see whether he will make good on that promise.

While we are on the subject of courts, it is vital that the UK Government give their full-throated support to the ICC and the ICJ in their investigations and judgments. The UK Government must support them and their processes and outcomes without fear or favour. That goes beyond this conflict, as there are international ramifications if we undermine those courts that are the bedrock of our international rules-based order. When in government, the Conservatives undermined those processes, but I had hoped for better from Labour, and I still do. In January, the now Foreign Secretary said that his party believed that if an arrest warrant were issued for Netanyahu, they would honour it. Since then, Karim Khan at the ICC has issued one for Hamas leaders and Netanyahu, but we understand from the media that the block by the UK, which should be removed, may have remained in place. It would helpful for the Foreign Secretary to come to the House and explain the position.

Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Lab)

As ever, the hon. Lady is a powerful advocate on injustices all over the world. The particular point she raises on the international rules-based order is very powerful. It and the international legal system must provide equal protection to all people, and they must be free from double standards. The minute those two things do not apply, the very nature of the rules-based order is under threat.

Layla Moran

I could not agree more. It has really concerned me how people perceive a double standard between what is happening in this conflict and what is happening between Ukraine and Russia. They are very different conflicts. As politicians, we have to bolster that international rules-based order so that people have faith that injustices anywhere in the world will be put through a proper process and determined. I am afraid to say that we are at risk—not just this country but the US—of undermining that system. I urge the Government to take a different approach.

I will simply end by saying that I urge the Government to go further and faster on a two-state solution. I would love to see a plan for what they mean by leading. I would offer my services with pleasure, because we need that two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in dignity and security. It is going to take much more than a change in tone to get there. It is vital to what we need to achieve peace, not just in Israel-Palestine but in the middle east and the region as a whole.

July 19, 2024
Deirdre Costigan – 2024 Maiden Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The maiden speech made by Deirdre Costigan, the Labour MP for Ealing Southall, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden remarks on this historic King’s Speech, which puts into concrete action the first steps of this Labour Government of national renewal. I thank the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) for their wide-ranging remarks.

As the new Member for Ealing Southall, I stand in the shadow of Virendra Sharma, who was our MP for 17 years. With more than 50 years of public service in total, including as a local councillor and mayor of Ealing, Virendra is a towering figure in west London politics. Always dressed impeccably in a suit, and sometimessporting sunglasses, he often has the air of a mafia don, until he gives you that wonderful Sharma smile. Virendra is well known for his work on global maternal health. He has been a tireless defender of human rights and of the underdog all his political life. I thank him personally for his support and wisdom, and I pay tribute to his wife Nirmala and all the family for their years of service to Ealing Southall.

The House can probably tell from my still-intact Dublin accent that I was not born here. I came to this country in the 1990s to finish my education, but like so many Irish people before me, I fell in love with the diversity of this country, and I never went back. That is the story of my constituency, Ealing Southall, where 53% of people were, like me, born abroad. Whether from India, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Ireland or so many other places, we all came here for a better life, but we did not always find it easy to achieve that better life. Many of my constituents have faced barriers in the workplace and on the streets, but they have always stood up to them.

Ealing Southall has a strong tradition of anti-racism, and of trade unionism. In the 1960s, low-paid exploited Punjabi workers at the Woolf rubber factory joined the Transport and General Workers’ Union and famously took seven weeks’ successful strike action, despite attempts by management to create sectarian division. In the 1970s, residents took to the streets of Southall to defend it from the far right in the aftermath of the racist murder of Gurdip Singh Chaggar.

Until my election, I worked for the country’s biggest and of course best trade union, Unison. Starting as a shop steward, I went on to become national officer for disability equality. I intend to continue Ealing Southall’s proud tradition of trade unionism and fighting for workers’ rights, so I welcome Labour’s new deal for working people, and the much-needed laws that we will bring forward to ensure that black, Asian and disabled workers have the right to equal pay.

I am enormously thankful to the people of Ealing Southall for placing their trust in me. Since the creation of the seat, Labour has won 23 times in a row, but this is the first time in 23 elections that Ealing Southall will be represented by a woman. I intend to support this Labour Government’s plans to create flexible workplaces that fit with women’s lives. Ealing Southall is home to a dizzying array of places of worship, and I was delighted to visit Shree Ram mandir, Shri Guru Ravidass gurdwara, Baitul Mukarram mosque and Christ the Redeemer church during my campaign. I know that for many of us coming to this country from abroad, it was the mandirs, the gurdwaras, the mosques and the churches that provided the help and support that we needed to settle into a new country. I will always support all the diverse communities in Ealing Southall.

I am lucky to have not one but three town centres in Ealing Southall. West Ealing, Hanwell, and Southall are all filled with shops, bars and cafés. Southall is a busy shopping hub for wedding finery, famous the world over, but local businesses are not as busy as they once were, which is why they strongly back Labour’s plans to review business rates and stamp out late payments to help revitalise our high streets.

Fly-tipping is a blight on town centres across London. I commend the work of the amazing LAGER Can litter picking volunteers who do so much to keep Ealing clean. As the former deputy leader of Ealing council, I hope to work with our new Labour Government to find ways of giving councils more powers to levy and enforce fines that will act as a real deterrent against that criminal behaviour.

Ealing hospital sits in the centre of my constituency, but it is badly in need of love. Ten years ago, I had a stroke while I was—of all places—at the Labour party conference. I recovered, but I am sad to say that I did miss the leader’s speech of my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) that year as a result. I am afraid to say that I missed his statement this morning as well, having unexpectedly been encouraged, shall we say, to make my maiden speech.

When I had my stroke, the care that I received from an Irish neurologist working for NHS North West London was fantastic, so I applaud the investment that Labour is making in reducing NHS waiting lists and doubling scanners for quicker diagnoses. I am not sure that I would be here today if it was not for our NHS. We must again ensure that it is the best health service in the world.

Finally, until recently, I was Ealing’s cabinet member for climate action. I know that many people in my constituency worry about air pollution, nature breakdown and flood risk. I am excited about Labour’s plan to set up Great British Energy, a clean new energy company that should cut carbon emissions, create jobs and help reduce household bills.

Ealing Southall has always been a place that has welcomed new arrivals. I thank this House for channelling the spirit of Ealing Southall today by similarly welcoming my arrival. I look forward to serving all my constituents, and I will start by backing the much-needed change that they voted for that is set out in the King’s Speech.

July 19, 2024
Andrew Mitchell – 2024 Speech on Foreign Affairs and Defence

The speech made by Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and welcome to the Chair.

May I warmly congratulate the Defence Secretary on his new role, and strongly endorse the comments he made about Britain’s armed forces? My own regiment has recently been on the frontline in Estonia, and I want to strongly endorse the words he used. I also endorse the advice he gave to new Members sitting on these green Benches. I first sat on these green Benches—on the Government side—37 years ago, and I strongly agree with what he said. I feel that sense of honour and privilege every day in this House.

I had hoped to start by welcoming the Foreign Secretary to his place. I wanted to wish him well in discharging the immense responsibilities of the office he now holds. I have to say that I was dismayed to hear the Foreign Secretary answer questions on the “Today” programme this morning that should more properly have been answered in this House—a view that I believe Mr Speaker shares. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that the Foreign Secretary will be very well served by the outstanding civil servants at the Foreign Office. I want to express my gratitude to our ambassadors and high commissioners around the world. On overseas visits throughout my tenure, I was superbly served and looked after. I also want to thank the outstanding young officials who worked in my private office.

I should like to pay a special tribute to my noble Friend Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton. He demonstrated clear strategic thinking about how British foreign policy needed to adapt to the world as it is today and injected real energy into British diplomacy. I hope the whole House will acknowledge that to persuade a former Prime Minister to serve as Foreign Secretary was a real benefit to our country. It was also a pleasure to serve alongside the former Members for Berwick-upon-Tweed and Macclesfield, who I am very sorry are no longer sitting alongside me on the Front Bench. They were both superb Ministers, who worked diligently at the Foreign Office.

I cannot recall a more perilous period in international affairs. I entered the House of Commons just two years before the momentous fall of the Berlin wall, which precipitated the demise of the Soviet Union and the consequent end of the cold war. It is difficult to overstate, having lived with the terrifying spectre of nuclear confrontation, the collective relief we all felt. Yet the world is once again in the grip of a galloping escalation of tensions and dangers, where the international institutions created on the heels of the second world war to defend our values and protect mankind are being undermined, the narrow nationalism that so disfigured our continent is once again rearing its destructive head, and despots and dictators increasingly ride roughshod over democratic freedoms and the rules-based order.

Putin’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine has brought war once again to the European continent. The Israel-Gaza conflict is devastating and risks regional conflagration. Poverty and debt stalk the global south. Yet covid taught us that no one is safe until we are all safe, while climate change is the greatest existential threat of our time. Never have we faced dangers so grave when our fates are so closely entwined. So at the very time when we need an international rules-based order to tackle these common threats—climate change, migration, terror and pandemics—we are more fragmented than ever. Divisions are hardening and debate is coarsening.

Liam Byrne (Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North) (Lab)

I am very grateful to the right hon. Member, my constituency neighbour, for giving way and I am delighted to see him in his place—on the Opposition side of the Chamber. Can I take it from his remarks that he subscribes to the view that we need not only a rules-based order, but a rights-based order? Here in our country, and indeed in Europe, the framework for those rights is the European convention on human rights. Are we to take it from his remarks that it is the policy of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition that we should remain a member of the ECHR?

Mr Mitchell

That is certainly the policy of the Opposition, and I hope it is common across the House that we should remain part of the European convention.

I was talking about divisions hardening and debate coarsening. Public discourse is increasingly vitriolic, be it in pursuit of single issue causes or broader agendas, from the left or the right, or driven by motives that may or may not be religious and may or may not be well-intentioned. The challenge this presents to British foreign policy is immense, but Britain has punched above its weight precisely because of our leadership role in the international system.

As His Majesty’s Opposition, our role is to hold the Government to account, but also to give the strongest possible support where we can. I hope that we can work constructively, as our two parties have done hitherto. In opposition, we will continue to make the case that Britain must be a force for good, that it is outward-looking and global in perspective, that we stand up for internationalism and co-operation, that we stand against populism and isolationism, and that we stand with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. I am very proud of the Conservative party’s record in government on all those fronts. We stood firmly behind Ukraine, and we worked day and night with international partners to maximise the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, while supporting negotiations to secure the release of the Israeli hostages. We produced a groundbreaking White Paper on international development, which drew in the support of all political parties in tackling global poverty in a complex geopolitical environment.

Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)

I am grateful to the shadow Foreign Secretary for his comments. One duty of the Opposition is to point out blind spots. We are talking about security, but one thing that was not mentioned in the King’s Speech was food security. For a rural community like mine, which has an 85% agricultural base, food security is really important. We have seen the attacks on Ukraine and the grain coming out of it. What can my right hon. Friend do in opposition to hold the Government to account to ensure we have food security on these isles?

Mr Mitchell

My hon. Friend is quite right about the importance of food security. He will remember that the then Prime Minister launched the global food security summit last November in Britain. Food security is an issue not just for us but, as my hon. Friend rightly says, all around the world, and we will continue to press the Government to take it as seriously as we did.

I would like to expand on some themes that I anticipate will remain dominant over the course of this Parliament. First, I turn to Ukraine. Britain’s work in supporting Ukraine is a shining example of cross-party co-operation. I pay tribute to the Labour party for the constructive approach it demonstrated while in opposition. The Government can rely on us to continue in that spirit, because the struggle in Ukraine is an existential issue. Let no one believe that Putin will stop at Ukraine if he is victorious in this struggle. Our support for Ukraine in the face of Putin’s brutality remains unwavering, and I know that the Government’s position is the same. We welcome the Government keeping in place the commitment we made to spend at least £3 billion a year on military support for Ukraine for as long as is necessary.

In government, we were also a leading advocate for sanctioned Russian assets being used to support Ukraine and for ensuring that Russia pays for the destruction it has caused. I urge the new Government to push the international community to coalesce around the most ambitious solution possible to achieve those important aims. We on the Opposition Benches welcome the declaration agreed at the NATO summit in Washington last week—to which the Defence Secretary referred—which committed to support Ukraine

“on its irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership.”

It is right that the Government also committed to this in the Gracious Speech.

In relation to the middle east. we want to see the conflict in Gaza come to a sustainable end as quickly as possible. Our view remains that a negotiated pause in the fighting is the best way to secure the release of the hostages, enable a significant scaling up of much-needed humanitarian aid, and help bring about the conditions that will allow for a permanent end to hostilities. That is the plan that Britain championed in New York, and which secured the consent of the international community at the UN. There is a deal on the table to achieve those goals, backed by Israel, the United States and the United Nations Security Council. The onus is now on Hamas to accept it and bring to an end the suffering of the Palestinian people and the hostages, who remain in such awful jeopardy.

The Government must build on our hard work to see aid reach those in Gaza who desperately need it. The Conservative Government trebled their aid commitment in the last financial year and did everything possible to get more aid into Gaza by land, sea and air. Israel has committed to increasing the amount of aid reaching Gaza, and the Government of Israel must be held to account for delivering on their promises.

I want to signal a note of caution, which links to my comments earlier about composure. I am acutely aware of the very strong feelings that the conflict in Gaza has elicited. It is probably the most polarising foreign policy issue of our time, which has played out on the streets of our country, on our university campuses and in our politics, even forming the entire basis for some candidates in the general election, who are now with us in the House of Commons.

We must remember that this remains an incredibly complex issue. The questions and challenges around resolving the current conflict and achieving the two-state solution that we all want to see are profoundly difficult. We have a responsibility to set a sensible and respectful tone in the many debates we will continue to have, and to make clear that there is no room in our democracy for threats of violence and intimidation. We require serious solutions and long-term measured policies, not performative politics or short-term symbolic proclamations. We should certainly recognise the state of Palestine, but it must be at the right time, as part of an overall solution. To do so prematurely could send a signal that terror pays. I urge the Government to resist the siren calls of those who wish to demonise the state of Israel, and who draw a moral equivalence between the Hamas leadership and the democratically elected Government of Israel in a bid to isolate and delegitimise it.

While we are all appalled at the dreadful loss of life in Gaza, we must never forget the horror unleashed by Hamas on Israel on 7 October—the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history, to which the Defence Secretary rightly referred. The Conservative party stands four-square behind Israel’s right to defend itself—but it must be in accordance with international humanitarian law. We must not lose sight of the fact that this is, at its heart, a tale of two just causes, of two peoples’ legitimate aspirations for national sovereignty, security and dignity.

There are other crises around the world that must also preoccupy the Government. I refer particularly to the crisis that has engulfed Sudan—now the worst displacement of people anywhere in the world. We are seeing clear evidence of ethnic cleansing once again in Darfur. We urge the Government to continue our efforts to pressure the warring parties in Sudan to cease hostilities, and to push hard for humanitarian support to reach those desperate people, including those I saw on the border with Chad earlier this year.

The Government must also continue to hold to account the regimes around the world committing appalling acts, whether that is Iran, Myanmar, North Korea or Russia, where we must push for the immediate release of Vladimir Kara-Murza. Finally, I know that the Foreign Secretary will want to work closely with the Governments of Gibraltar and Spain, and take a hands-on approach to securing a good deal for the Rock’s future prosperity. We will also be following closely the very important negotiations over the future of Diego Garcia.

I turn briefly and directly to the Gracious Speech. In spite of their legitimate desire for yet another defence review, I think the Government have made a mistake in not honouring immediately our commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. My hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), the shadow Defence Secretary, will say more about the matter later, but I would say now that this gives the wrong signal to our allies and adversaries about our determination to confront the multitude of dangers the world faces. In 2014, the Conservative Government made the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence. The UK led the way and many NATO allies have followed, and we have now led the way with our commitment to move to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. The Government should be in no doubt, either, that we will place under the microscope any decisions that they may make on our nuclear deterrent.

On the subject of Europe, we welcome the closest possible partnership with our friends and neighbours, subject to respecting the results of the referendum and the will of our constituents over Brexit. Today’s most important summit at Blenheim, served up oven-ready by my right hon. Friend the former Prime Minister, is a chance to underline the effective way in which the UK has worked with our European partners in response to the invasion of Ukraine and shown that, although we are outside the EU, we can indeed work together effectively.

The upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which I am delighted was referenced in the Gracious Speech, will be an opportunity to show real ambition for the Commonwealth. In government, we offered strong support for Samoa’s hosting of CHOGM and its desire to use this platform to enhance Commonwealth countries’ resilience to global challenges. I urge the new Government to continue working closely with Samoa to make the most of this CHOGM and to mobilise action across the Commonwealth, including to boost trade and investment and enhance access to climate finance.

I wish to conclude by addressing an issue that is very close to my heart and the hearts of many others across the House, but which in many ways links all these themes together. I was privileged to return to government as the Minister for international development, a brief I held previously in 2010 as Secretary of State. For many in their darkest moments after flood, earthquake and disaster, Britain has been a beacon of hope and light. Now, 70 million people are falling back into poverty, millions of girls are out of school, famines stalk the lands of east Africa and children are starving to death. The anger and frustration of the global south is palpable. I made no secret of my dismay that the overseas aid budget was cut and that the Department for International Development was merged into the Foreign Office. My job as Deputy Foreign Secretary was to look forward, to try to make the merger work after a tumultuous start and to set out a pathway to return to 0.7%.

However, development is about much more than money. Our recent White Paper crafted new approaches that reflect the changing world around us. We formulated creative ways of mobilising new and additional funds to ensure that the sustainable development goals can get back on track. I am proud of the leadership that our former Prime Minister has shown on the green climate fund and the Global Fund, where Britain was right at the forefront of ensuring that those funds improved and were fully replenished. I hope that the new Government will do the same with the International Development Association World Bank replenishment and with Gavi.

We made the case that international development must be owned by the British people. I submit that that is not a Conservative, Labour or Liberal policy but a British policy, and we must all unite behind the goal of bringing the British people behind the agenda set out so clearly in the White Paper. All British development money is spent in our national interest, because it helps heal the grotesque discrepancies of opportunity and wealth that disfigure our world. We will continue to stand up for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, calling for the continued reform of the international financial system to free up funding for climate finance, debt relief and achieving the SDGs. We will continue to stand up for women and girls with the same vigour that we exhibited in government, whether in relation to female genital mutilation, women’s rights or LGBTQ rights, and we will press for a bolstering of the coping mechanisms of countries on the frontline of climate shocks.

Finally, we will be keeping a close eye on whether the “D” in FCDO falls silent once more. Development is only as effective as the structures and expertise behind it. I tried hard in office to strengthen the development silo in the Foreign Office, with some, but frankly not enough success. I stress in the strongest terms that development cannot be a sideshow, as people’s lives depend upon it, but the Foreign Office system is built around diplomacy, with a panoply of resources focused on the Foreign Secretary’s priorities. I hope that the Government keep that in mind. Development deserves the attention and energy afforded to diplomacy. With the right strategic adjustments, development and diplomacy could make for a mighty partnership, but it will require proactive leadership. If, despite best efforts, that cannot be achieved under the merger—that will become clearer sooner rather than later during this Parliament—I will urge the Government to move swiftly and decisively to plan B.

It is easy to despair at the state of the world, so I hope to end on a more sanguine note. I am long enough in the tooth to have lived through the ebbs and flows of different eras, conflicts and crises. I have witnessed the worst in humanity, but also the best. I have learned that the bleakest moments offer the greatest opportunities. However, history teaches us that most things do not come to an end, but are brought to an end. We have the power to change things for the better and to build a safer and more prosperous world, but we cannot do it alone. Only international co-operation can deliver the progress we seek. I sincerely hope that the new Government will succeed. The future of us all depends on that success.

July 19, 2024