Category: Speeches

  • Liz Truss – 2021 Statement on BA Flight 149 in Kuwait

    Liz Truss – 2021 Statement on BA Flight 149 in Kuwait

    The statement made by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 23 November 2021.

    Today the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will release files covering the events surrounding British Airways flight 149 (BA149) to the National Archives. BA149 landed at Kuwait City on 2 August 1990 as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was beginning. The passengers and crew from the flight were subsequently held hostage by Iraq and mistreated. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provided consular and diplomatic support to those involved from the outset, but there have long been questions about how much the Government knew of the situation at the time.

    We now know that Iraq was beginning a full invasion of Kuwait on the night of 1 to 2 August. The files being released today describe how things looked to those involved at the time.

    On 1 August the British Embassy in Kuwait told the local British Airways office that while flights on 1 August should be safe, subsequent flights were inadvisable. BA149 took off from London at 18:04 GMT on 1 August, almost two hours later than scheduled because of technical problems. Its ultimate destination was Kuala Lumpur with a short stopover in Kuwait. At about 22:15 GMT, during its flight towards Kuwait, the captain spoke to the captain of another flight which had left Kuwait for London that evening. The pilot of that flight reported nothing unusual in Kuwait and no reason for BA149 to depart from its planned route.

    The files show that the British ambassador in Kuwait informed the Resident Clerk—the officer on overnight duty to deal with emergencies—at the FCO in London about reports of an Iraqi incursion into Kuwait around 00:00 GMT on 2 August 1990, while the British Airways flight was en route. The information was passed by the Resident Clerk to the Head of the FCO’s Middle East Department and also to No. 10, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and the Secret Intelligence Service, but not to British Airways.

    BA149 landed at Kuwait City at 01:13 GMT. Around 45 minutes later Kuwait City airport was closed and BA149 was unable to leave. Its passengers and crew were subsequently held hostage by the Iraqis, with the last hostages released in December 1990.

    The Government have always condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the suffering that followed and the mistreatment of those aboard BA149. The responsibility for these events and the mistreatment of those passengers and crew lies entirely with the Government of Iraq at the time.

    The files show that in the call to the Resident Clerk, the British ambassador in Kuwait was unclear whether the Iraqi move across the border was a limited or larger incursion. At that point, the evidence in the files suggests that it was not possible to say with certainty what was happening. Similarly, the Resident Clerk in the FCO would have had no knowledge of the timing of flights into Kuwait. At the time there appeared to have been no formal arrangements by which information about such events could be passed from the FCO to airlines or the Department of Transport. A procedure to deal with situations like this now exists involving Government and the airline industry.

    There was also speculation at the time and since that the flight was used to carry members of UK Special Forces. The files are consistent with the then Minister for Europe’s statement in April 2007 that

    “the Government at the time did not attempt in any way to exploit the flight by any means whatever.”—[Official Report, 27 April 2007; Vol. 459, c. 1217.]

    The call made by Her Majesty’s ambassador to Kuwait has never been publicly disclosed or acknowledged until today. These files show that the existence of the call was not revealed to Parliament and the public. This failure was unacceptable. As the current Secretary of State, I apologise to the House for this, and I express my deepest sympathy to those who were detained and mistreated.

  • Nadia Whittome – 2021 Speech on Climate Education

    Nadia Whittome – 2021 Speech on Climate Education

    The speech made by Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, in the House of Commons on 23 November 2021.

    I beg to move,

    That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require matters relating to climate change and sustainability to be integrated throughout the curriculum in primary and secondary schools and included in vocational training courses; and for connected purposes.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, 2050 is the year that the world needs to reach net zero. This will require fundamental changes to every sector of our economy unprecedented in their overall scale. For some, 2050 might feel like it is a long way away. In the next 30 years, Governments will come and go and many Members of this House will retire, but for my generation and for those who are still in school—young people who have their whole future ahead of them—2050 will be the middle of their working lives. A child who started primary school this September will not even be 35. The world and the economy that they inherit will feel very different from those of today.

    If our education system is not preparing young people to mitigate and deal with the impacts of climate change, it is failing them. If it is not teaching them the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a net zero society, it is failing them. If young people are not being taught to understand the impact of human interaction with the natural world and the need to maintain biodiversity and cut our carbon emissions, it is failing them and our planet. This Bill aims to put that right and to prepare young people for the future, and this Bill is what young people are demanding. In 2018, one survey found that 42% of pupils felt that they had learned a little, hardly anything or nothing about the environment at school, and 68% said that they would like to know more.

    This Bill exists only because of the hard work of young people. School students from Teach the Future, who have joined us today in the Public Gallery, have spent the past two years campaigning relentlessly to be taught the truth about the climate crisis and to be equipped with the skills to tackle it. Their campaign has put this issue on the agenda; it now falls to us to put it into law.

    The Bill comes in the same month that the UK hosted the COP26. If we want to know whether something was a success, we need to start by asking the people who have the most to lose—people such as 15-year-old Safia Hasan, a climate activist from Chad, who said:

    “I’m hugely disappointed and hugely let down by COP. Coming from Chad, millions of my people are suffering but nobody is listening to our cries, our tears. It’s our planet, and it’s time to stop messing about with our future.”

    Notwithstanding the disappointing outcomes on climate finance, decarbonising of the energy sector and just transition initiatives, however, I welcome the Government announcement at COP26 that they will take action to promote greater teaching of climate change in the curriculum. That is a key first step and a vital recognition of the importance of climate education, but a voluntary scheme such as the one announced can achieve only so much, and unfortunately the fine print of the announcement was such that it amounts to little more than teachers being sent PowerPoint presentations.

    While teaching about the climate remains voluntary, many young people will continue to miss out. Teachers must also be supported to deliver climate education, given that 70% of teachers feel that they have not received adequate training to educate young people about climate change. This Climate Education Bill would make climate education mandatory, embedding it across the national curriculum and ensuring that all teachers receive training. It would be intertwined with every subject, a golden thread that runs through a young person’s schooling, just as the climate crisis and our actions to tackle it run through every aspect of our lives.

    Whether those young people grow up to be a builder or a banker, a carer or a caterer, the climate crisis will affect everyone. We need to train the next generation of plumbers to install low-carbon heat pumps, and teach the next generation of chefs about sustainable diets and sustainable food production. This Bill would ensure that climate change is given the emphasis in our education system that it deserves.

    The climate and ecological crisis impacts everything around us. Pandemics, such as the one that has turned our world upside-down for the past two years, will become more frequent as loss of habitat forces animals to migrate and come into contact with other animals or people. Climate education will help young people to understand the world around them and provide access to nature and opportunities for children to engage with our natural world. Some 57% of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England see patients who are distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment. The Bill would provide support for students to deal with eco and climate anxiety, which climate education will also mitigate, as it will empower students to understand what actions they can take to help tackle climate change and the role that they will play in the future.

    I hope that the Government will recognise the Bill as a natural continuation of their announcement at COP26. I hope it will encourage them to go further—to legislate to make climate change part of the core content of all subjects, to support teachers to deliver climate education and to decarbonise the education sector much faster. Not only young people but our entire economy stands to benefit. Our green jobs and recovery plans lag far behind those of most G7 countries. The availability of the right skills and a keen interest in sustainability will pave the way to a productive green transformation and decent job creation.

    I am delighted and grateful that the Bill includes among its sponsors the Chairs of the Environmental Audit Committee, the Select Committee on Education, and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. I pay particular thanks to the right hon. Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) for his continued leadership on skills and training as part of a just transition to a greener economy, as well as for his personal kindness and support for this campaign.

    It is important to be honest about the climate and ecological emergency, but it is also important to remember how much we still have to fight for. Every ray of hope and every inch of progress at COP26 was won through relentless pressure from activists and campaigners, especially those on the frontlines of the crisis. Change has always happened this way, and always will. The next generation are calling on us to take these steps, to secure their future. I want us to listen to them and act for them. Some of us may not be around to see the full results of our actions, but our legacy will live on. We must decide: do we want to be remembered for what we did or for what we failed to do? Young people’s futures depend on us. We must not let them down.

    Question put and agreed to.

    Ordered,

    That Nadia Whittome, Philip Dunne, Robert Halfon, Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran, Mhairi Black, Yvette Cooper, Rebecca Long Bailey, Zarah Sultana, Darren Jones, Clive Lewis and Jeremy Corbyn present the Bill.

    Nadia Whittome accordingly presented the Bill.

  • Christopher Pincher – 2021 Comments on Keyworkers Getting onto Housing Ladder

    Christopher Pincher – 2021 Comments on Keyworkers Getting onto Housing Ladder

    The comments made by Christopher Pincher, the Housing Minister, on 26 November 2021.

    I am absolutely delighted that the first people to benefit from First Homes include a nurse and police officer. They have been helped to own a home in the community where they have worked tirelessly during the pandemic to keep people safe.

    This scheme is putting local people first and creating opportunities for young people and families to feel the sense of pride that comes with homeownership.

    We are determined to help more people on to the housing ladder and are providing significant funding to regenerate derelict land, deliver new homes and create prosperous local communities across the country.

  • Sajid Javid – 2021 Statement on the B.1.1.529 Variant

    Sajid Javid – 2021 Statement on the B.1.1.529 Variant

    The statement made by Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 26 November 2021.

    Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. With permission I’d like to update the House on COVID-19.

    But before I begin, I want to wish the Shadow Secretary of State well, as he recovers from COVID-19.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, over the past 48 hours, a small number of cases of a new variant have been detected on our international genomic database.

    I want to reassure this House that there are no detected cases of this variant in the UK at this time but this new variant is of huge international concern.

    The World Health Organisation has called a special meeting this morning – and that meeting is taking place right now.

    I want to update the House on what we know so far, why we’re concerned, and the action that we are taking although I must stress, that this is a fast-moving situation, and there remains a high degree of uncertainty.

    The sequence of this variant – currently called B.1.1.529 – was first uploaded by Hong Kong, from a case of someone travelling from South Africa.

    The UK was the first country to identify the potential threat of this new variant and alert international partners.

    Further cases have been identified in South Africa and in Botswana and it is highly likely that it has now spread to other countries.

    Yesterday, the South African government held a press conference, where they provided an update on what they know so far.

    I want to put on record my thanks to South Africa, not only for their rigorous scientific response but the openness and transparency with which they have acted much as we did here in the United Kingdom, when we first detected what is now known as the Alpha variant.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, we are concerned that this new variant may pose a substantial risk to public health.

    The variant has an unusually large number of mutations.

    Yesterday, the UK Health Security Agency classified B.1.1.529 as a new Variant Under Investigation and the Variant Technical Group has designated it as a Variant Under Investigation with Very High Priority.

    It’s the only variant with this designation, making it higher priority than Beta.

    It shares many of the features of the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants.

    Early indications show this variant may be more transmissible than the Delta variant and current vaccines may be less effective against it.

    It may also impact the effectiveness of one of our major treatments, Ronapreve.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, we’re also worried about the rise in cases in countries in Southern Africa especially as these populations should have significant natural immunity.

    In South Africa in particular, there has been exponential growth, with cases increasing fourfold over the last two weeks.

    In Gauteng Province – which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria –some 80 percent of cases, when tested with a PCR test, have shown something that is known as the ‘S-Gene dropout’ which we associate with this variant.

    So while we don’t know yet definitely whether the exponential growth in South Africa is directly associated with this new variant, this PCR test analysis does indicate that there could many more cases of this new variant than just those that have been sequenced so far.

    So Madam Deputy Speaker, even as we continue to learn more about this new variant, one of the lessons of this pandemic has been that we must move quickly, and at the earliest possible moment.

    The UK remains in a strong position.

    We’ve made tremendous gains as a result of the decisions that we took over the summer and the initial success of our booster programme.

    But we’re heading into winter and our booster programme is still ongoing. So we must act with caution.

    So we’re taking the following steps:

    Yesterday I announced that – from midday today – we’re placing six countries in Southern Africa on the travel red list.

    Those countries are: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

    Anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident who has been in one of these countries in the last 10 days will be denied entry into England.

    UK and Irish residents arriving from these countries – from 4 am on Sunday – will enter hotel quarantine.

    Anyone arriving before those dates should take PCR tests on day 2 and day 8 – even if they are vaccinated and isolate at home – along with the rest of their household.

    If you’ve arrived from any of these countries in the last 10 days NHS Test and Trace will be contacting you and asking you to take a PCR test.

    But do not wait to be contacted – you should take PCR tests right away.

    We have been working closely with the Devolved Administrations on this, and they will be aligning their response.

    In recent hours, Israel has also taken similar precautions.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish to stress that we’re working quickly, and we’re working with a high degree of uncertainty.

    We are continuing to make assessments, including about those countries with strong travel links to South Africa and we’re working with our international partners – including South Africa and the European Union – to ensure an aligned response.

    But this variant is a reminder for all of us that this pandemic is far from over.

    We must continue to act with caution, and do all we can to keep this virus at bay including, once you are eligible, getting your booster shot.

    We’ve already given over 16 million booster shots.

    The booster jab was already important before we knew about this variant – but now, it could not be more important.

    So please, if you’re eligible get your booster shot, do not delay.

    Madam Deputy Speaker, we’ve made great progress against this virus – progress that we’re determined to hold on to.

    This government will continue do whatever is necessary to keep us safe – and we’ve all got our part to play.

    I commend this statement to the House.

  • Ben Wallace – 2021 Comments on Future Soldier

    Ben Wallace – 2021 Comments on Future Soldier

    The comments made by Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, on 25 November 2021.

    Future Soldier is reinforced by the ambition outlined in the Defence Command Paper to transform the Army into a more agile, integrated, lethal, expeditionary force.

    We have underpinned this generational work with an extra £8.6bn for Army equipment, bringing the total investment to £41.3 billion.

    Our army will operate across the globe, equipped with the capabilities to face down a myriad of threats from cyber warfare through to battlefield conflict.

  • Boris Johnson – 2021 Letter to President Macron on Channel Crossings

    Boris Johnson – 2021 Letter to President Macron on Channel Crossings

    The letter sent by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, on 25 November 2021.

    Letter (in .pdf format).

  • Sajid Javid – 2021 Comments on Adding 6 African Countries to Red List

    Sajid Javid – 2021 Comments on Adding 6 African Countries to Red List

    The comments made by Sajid Javid, the Secretary of Health and Social Care, on 25 November 2021.

    As part of our close surveillance of variants across the world, we have become aware of the spread of a new potentially concerning variant, which UKHSA has designated a variant under investigation.

    We are taking precautionary action to protect public health and the progress of our vaccine rollout at a critical moment as we enter winter, and we are monitoring the situation closely.

    I want to pay tribute to our world-leading scientists who are working constantly to keep our country safe, and I urge everyone to keep doing their bit by the getting the jab and following public health guidance.

  • Ranil Jayawardena – 2021 Comments on Trading Barriers

    Ranil Jayawardena – 2021 Comments on Trading Barriers

    The comments made by Ranil Jayawardena, the Minister for International Trade, on 26 November 2021.

    In the last year, we have been tearing down even more trading barriers than the year before – 20% more, in spite of Covid-19 – which is proof that Global Britain is delivering for our dedicated exporters, supporting local jobs and boosting the economy. This is just the beginning. We want businesses in every corner of the country to tell us about the barriers they want us to tackle next, so they can focus on what they do best – making world-class products and selling them to the world.

  • Gillian Keegan – 2021 Comments on Suicide Prevention

    Gillian Keegan – 2021 Comments on Suicide Prevention

    The comments made by Gillian Keegan, the Minister for Mental Health, on 26 November 2021.

    I know the last 18 months have been really challenging and many more people have been asking for help with their mental health.

    I want to be clear: we are here to support anyone struggling – and if you need help, I encourage you to reach out.

    The entire suicide prevention voluntary sector has played a crucial role in providing people with the help and support they need throughout the pandemic and I encourage them to apply for this funding so we can continue to support our communities.

  • Robin Walker – 2021 Comments on Pupil Absence

    Robin Walker – 2021 Comments on Pupil Absence

    The comments made by Robin Walker, the Schools Minister, on 26 November 2021.

    It has been fantastic to see how through a combination of data, proactivity and a focus on children’s wellbeing, a school like the London Academy has driven up attendance and reduced persistent absence. Every lesson that we can prevent a child from missing is another building block to their life chances, development and wellbeing.

    My department is channelling all its efforts to provide support and guidance to help schools, local authorities and multi-academy trusts take action to increase attendance, and I ask that everyone working with children does everything in their power to help break down any barriers to them attending school.

    I recognise that Covid is still with us and causing some unavoidable absence – but this is all the more reason that we must all take action to address every avoidable reason for a child not being in school.