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Tag: 2021

  • Stephen Kinnock – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    Stephen Kinnock – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    The speech made by Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for Aberavon, in the House of Commons on 4 February 2021.

    The Chinese Government’s brutal campaign of oppression in Xinjiang is a scar on the conscience of the world. The Labour party stands shoulder to shoulder with the Uyghur people. We already know about the forced labour camps, and yesterday we heard utterly heartbreaking testimonies from Uyghur women who have been systematically raped, sexually abused and tortured. This follows last summer’s harrowing accounts from Uyghur women who are victims of forced sterilisation and forced intrauterine device insertion. The Chinese Government’s own statistics show that birth rates in Xinjiang fell by a third in 2017-18—further evidence that what is happening may meet the international legal definition of genocide, which the new US Administration have already acknowledged.

    Last month the Foreign Secretary rightly condemned the events in Xinjiang as

    “barbarism we had hoped was lost to another era”—[Official Report, 12 January 2021; Vol. 687, c. 160.]

    Surely the time for tangible action has now come. First, where on earth are the Magnitsky sanctions that the Opposition and Members across the House have been calling for since last June? The Foreign Secretary said that the body of evidence in Xinjiang is “large, diverse and growing”, and we know the names of the senior Chinese officials who are responsible for these atrocities. The US sanctioned them last summer. Who in Government is holding this up?

    Secondly, 20% of the world’s cotton comes from Xinjiang. We welcome the steps that the Government have taken to help UK business cease being complicit in forced labour, but they did not go far enough. Companies must be accountable, not simply transparent. Rather than tinkering around the edges of the Modern Slavery Act, will the Minister commit himself to bringing forward legislation that moves us to a system of mandatory due diligence?

    Next Tuesday, when the Trade Bill returns, the House has the chance to send a united message to the world that genocide can never be met with indifference, impunity or inaction. This should not be a partisan issue. Given that it is a long-standing Government commitment that courts, not the Government, must rule on genocide, will the Minister join with us and colleagues across the House to give UK courts the powers to determine genocide and therefore prevent the UK from ever doing trade deals with genocidal states?

  • Nusrat Ghani – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    Nusrat Ghani – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    The speech made by Nusrat Ghani, the Conservative MP for Wealden, in the House of Commons on 4 February 2021.

    I thank the Minister for his powerful statement. Yesterday, the BBC broadcast harrowing footage of Chinese state-orchestrated abuse against Uyghur women on an unprecedented scale.

    “They had an electric stick, I didn’t know what it was, and it was pushed inside my genital tract, torturing me with an electric shock.”

    That is the testimony of Tursunay Ziawudun. “They did whatever their evil minds could think of. They were barbarians. I felt I had died. I was dead.” Then there are the gang rapes of Uyghur women by the police in front of other camp detainees, as a form of re-education, seeking out those who look away to punish them even further.

    These horrifying stories add to the huge and growing body of evidence detailing atrocities perpetrated by the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang—atrocities that may even be genocidal. These horrors have led the Board of Deputies of British Jews to compare the plight of the Uyghurs to the Holocaust. But as everybody in this House knows, there is no prospect of China being held to account through the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice. So I ask the Minister: how will the Government get the court judgment they need to act when all international routes are paralysed by China? We cannot be bystanders to the deliberate attempt to exterminate a group of people. Not again.

    Will the Minister make a promise today that no further deepening of ties of any kind will take place with China until a full judicial inquiry has investigated these crimes? Will he commit himself to a meeting with Rahima Mahmut, a Uyghur survivor, who is known by so many in this House? Rahima is a brave woman, risking her safety to save her family and her people. The United Kingdom cannot stand by and do nothing about the extermination of the Uyghur—mass rapes, scalping and forced sterilisations. We can act and we must act.

  • Nigel Adams – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    Nigel Adams – 2021 Speech on the Treatment of Uyghur Women

    The speech made by Nigel Adams, the Minister for Asia, in the House of Commons on 4 February 2021.

    I acknowledge the strength of feeling about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, which is shared by hon. Members across the House. The BBC report to which my hon. Friend refers is chilling. It includes deeply distressing testimony of the rape, torture and dehumanisation of Uyghur women in Xinjiang detention centres. It is a further compelling addition to the growing body of evidence of the gross human rights violations being perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in Xinjiang. The evidence of the scale and severity of these violations is now far reaching. It paints a truly harrowing picture. If China wishes to dispute this evidence, it must allow unfettered access to the region for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights or another independent fact-finding body.

    This Government are committed to taking robust action in respect of Xinjiang. That is why on 12 January the Foreign Secretary announced a series of targeted measures to help ensure that British organisations are neither complicit in nor profiting from the human rights violations in the region. This includes a review of export controls as they apply to Xinjiang, the introduction of financial penalties for businesses that do not comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and support for UK Government bodies to exclude suppliers that are complicit in forced labour.

    These measures demonstrate to China that there is a reputational and economic cost to its policies in Xinjiang, and it is why the UK has played, and will continue to play, a leading role in building international pressure on China to change course. In October 2019 and June 2020, the UK led the first two joint statements on Xinjiang at the UN. In October 2020, 38 countries joined the UK in a robust statement at the UN Third Committee. This diplomatic action is vitally important. More countries than ever are speaking out about Xinjiang. China has already been forced to change its narrative about the camps, and its denial of these violations is increasingly hard to sustain. The Foreign Secretary has made clear the extent of our concern directly to his counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and I have raised the issue with the former Chinese ambassador in London.

    On the specific allegations of forced birth control, we have raised these with the Chinese authorities and used our national statement at the UN Human Rights Council last September to draw international attention to this deeply concerning issue.

    I can assure the House that we will continue to work with our international partners, including with the new US Administration and through our G7 presidency, to hold China to account for its actions. The UK has called repeatedly for China to abide by the UN’s recommendation to release all those who have been arbitrarily detained, and I know that right hon. and hon. Members will join me today in reiterating that call.

  • Matt Hancock – 2021 Comments on Rapid Workplace Testing

    Matt Hancock – 2021 Comments on Rapid Workplace Testing

    The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 7 February 2021.

    To save lives and protect the NHS, we have again asked for everyone to work from home. But we know that for some this is not possible, which is why the workplace rapid testing programme is so important.

    Employers should regularly test their staff, and this drive across government to raise awareness and encourage more businesses to introduce rapid testing for employees is incredibly important. When you consider that around one in three people have the virus without symptoms and could potentially infect people without even knowing it, it becomes clear why focusing testing on those without symptoms is so essential.

    We are already working with many employers to scale up workforce testing, spanning the food industry, retail sector, transport network, and across the public sector too. I strongly urge businesses and employees across the country to take up this offer of rapid testing to help stop this virus spreading further.

  • Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on Tax Cuts for Hardest-Hit Sectors

    Anneliese Dodds – 2021 Comments on Tax Cuts for Hardest-Hit Sectors

    The comments made by Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 7 February 2021.

    Labour is the party of work and business. We understand that businesses create the jobs and drive the growth that will build the recovery. That’s why they need breathing space, with a targeted business rates holiday and an extension of the reduced rate in VAT.

    The Chancellor has acted at the last minute time and again during this crisis – and that dither and delay has created uncertainty for businesses, cost jobs and threatened our recovery.

    Britain can’t afford the Chancellor to make the same irresponsible mistake all over again. He must announce these continued tax cuts now, not wait another month and risk even more job losses.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2021 Comments on Workplace Testing

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2021 Comments on Workplace Testing

    The comments made by Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Health Secretary, on 7 February 2021.

    Extra workplace testing is welcome but so much more needs to be done to make workplaces Covid-secure including improving ventilation and upgraded PPE standards.

    This is even more important when the most recent data shows hundreds of outbreaks in workplaces since the start of January.

  • Dominic Raab – 2021 Speech in Cyprus

    Dominic Raab – 2021 Speech in Cyprus

    The speech made by Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, on 4 February 2021.

    Thank you very much. It’s a huge pleasure to be here. Both to renew the connections and friendship we have between the UK and Cyprus, but also, given the upcoming talks, to help make progress to support our friends here in Cyprus.

    I want to thank the President of the Republic, Mr Anastasiades, and also you Foreign Minister for your friendship, your hospitality, and for the constructive discussions that we had today. I also look forward to meeting Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, later this afternoon.

    The UK-Cyprus relationship is strong. We have a lot of history, a lot of water under the bridge in our relationship. We have shared values, shared legal systems, joint membership of the Commonwealth, and a very big web of people-to-people relations, including students – we talked a bit about that as well today.

    We have got great partnerships and a network of personal relations, particularly in education, science, research, and security, all of which serve our joint interests and contribute to our friendship.

    We want to continue strengthening those links and we want to reinforce and nurture these relations, and perhaps widen them as well.

    So we will continue to work together to uphold the values that we both share and deal with the challenges we both face, whether that is including tackling Covid, climate change and regional challenges.

    You can count on our friendship, you can count on our support and you can count on us on playing an active and full role.

    And we also want to play a supporting role in helping the people of Cyprus, both sides of this dispute, to move things forward, to break the deadlock, to find a settlement that works in everyone’s interest.

    We are a problem solving nation by instinct, we are a Guarantor Power, we are a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

    But above all, the UK feels we are also a long standing friend of the Cypriot people across the island.

    So we want to see a permanent, enduring and lasting end to the dispute.

    And I hope that all parties should seize the opportunities that the 5+1 talks present to really change the conversation and give the children, the young people of the island, the brightest prospects for the future in years ahead.

    I think it’s an opportunity to push for a settlement which will benefit both sides but also have a premium dividend, if you like, for regional stability, security and prosperity.

    I think a failure to reach a settlement after so many efforts will benefit no-one.

    So again, I urge all sides to come to the talks with a willingness to demonstrate flexibility and compromise and I was very heartened by my conversations at the scope for that.

    We will work with the Cypriot people and the UN of course, to finally resolve the Cyprus problem and achieve a just and lasting settlement.

    So that, again, the young people, the next generation of Cypriots, can fulfil their aspirations, their dreams and evade their fears and anxieties that appear in both communities.

    A reunited, Cyprus can achieve its full potential as a beacon of democracy, stability, prosperity and, frankly, the underlying values that Nicos and I, that Brits and Cypriots share.

    Thank you very much again for your very warm welcome.

  • John Healey – 2021 Comments on Leaked Defence Report

    John Healey – 2021 Comments on Leaked Defence Report

    The comments made by John Healey, the Shadow Defence Secretary, commenting on a leaked Ministry of Defence report on 6 February 2021.

    This report raises the alarm on the readiness of our military, at a time when the country is already in a national crisis.

    After a decade of decline our forces are over 10,000 below the strength Ministers said are needed, with combat personnel indispensable for our defence and our commitment to NATO.

    Britain can’t afford any more reckless cuts to our forces, so ministers must put personnel at the heart of their delayed defence review. Our adversaries will exploit continuing holes in our capability. The UK needs a proper defence strategy without further delay.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2021 Speech on the Economic Situation

    Bridget Phillipson – 2021 Speech on the Economic Situation

    The speech made by Bridget Phillipson, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, on 6 February 2021.

    The Chancellor is announcing minor tweaks to a policy already more than 20 weeks old.

    He’s clearly out of ideas when it comes to supporting hard-pressed businesses.

    Instead we need urgent action to secure our economy today, including a smart extension to the furlough scheme and Labour’s speedy fixes to the failing Kickstart scheme and Green Homes Grant.

    We can’t afford more dither and delay, with changes pushed back to the Budget.

  • Lucy Powell – 2021 Comments on Pubs Reopening

    Lucy Powell – 2021 Comments on Pubs Reopening

    The comments made by Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, on 6 February 2021.

    These half measures would be deeply damaging for pubs and hospitality. Rather than forcing them to open but not sell alcohol, the Government should protect jobs and businesses by making the furlough scheme smart and giving businesses access to the emergency support they need – keeping it in place until necessary measures are lifted.

    Ideas like this could see COVID cases rise and business thrown under the bus, needlessly. The vaccine gives us a way out:, the last thing businesses need now is ridiculous speculation about re-opening under unviable terms.