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Tag: 2022

  • PRESS RELEASE : HRC 51 – Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Human Experts on Ethiopia [September 2022]

    PRESS RELEASE : HRC 51 – Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the Commission of Human Experts on Ethiopia [September 2022]

    The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 22 September 2022.

    UK Human Rights Ambassador, Rita French, delivered a statement on the ongoing crisis in Ethiopia.

    Thank you, Mr President.

    The United Kingdom welcomes the Commission’s first report and their important work.

    Since the conflict in northern Ethiopia began in November 2020, we have consistently called for three things.

    First, for an immediate halt to the conflict, which has left over 13 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. We are therefore extremely concerned by the return to war and the involvement once again of Eritrean forces, which will make finding a peaceful settlement more difficult.Second, for a negotiated political settlement between all sides, because it is clear that there is no prospect of a military solution. We welcome the Ethiopian Government’s public commitments to ending the conflict through dialogue, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s willingness to begin peace talks. Now is the time for both parties to deliver on these commitments.
    Lastly, we have repeatedly called for full, open and independent investigations into the appalling human rights violations and abuses committed by all sides. We welcome the conclusions of the Joint Investigation and the work of the Inter-Ministerial Task Force. The Commission’s work plays a vital role alongside these in ensuring accountability. We urge the Ethiopian Government to cooperate with the Commission, and to support the extension of its mandate.

    Commissioners,

    We would welcome your views on key priorities over the coming year, in the hope that your mandate is extended.

    Thank you, Mr President.

  • Andrew Bailey – 2022 Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Inflation

    Andrew Bailey – 2022 Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Inflation

    The letter sent by Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, to Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 22 September 2022.

    [in .pdf format]

  • Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Letter to the Governor of the Bank of England on Inflation

    Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Letter to the Governor of the Bank of England on Inflation

    The letter sent by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, on 22 September 2022.

    [in .pdf format]

  • Simon Clarke – 2022 Levelling Up Secretary’s Op-ed for The Telegraph

    Simon Clarke – 2022 Levelling Up Secretary’s Op-ed for The Telegraph

    The article written by Simon Clarke, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on 22 September 2022. The article was released as a press release by the department (mis-spelling the Secretary of State’s name).

    We have a new and reinvigorated government in Westminster.

    A government ready to roll up its sleeves and put in the hard graft so that the future of this country is bright and prosperous.

    We must ensure that everyone in our society – irrespective of where they’re from, what they do, or how much money they earn – lives somewhere warm, decent and safe.

    We’ve already acted on energy bills, so a typical household will pay no more than £2,500, while providing hundreds of pounds in relief for struggling families this winter.

    And we’re acting with that same urgency on building safety.

    What happened at Grenfell Tower was nothing short of a national tragedy. It should not have taken the death of 72 people for us to have woken up to just how ineffective the building safety regime was. It is our duty as a government to fix this, and ensure that it never happens again.

    Just a few weeks into the job I am hearing from leaseholders who are still waiting for remediation works to be carried out, who are unable to sell, and face sky-high building insurance premiums.

    I’m determined to finish the job my predecessors started, fixing the system for good, ensuring that industry rectifies the problems it created, and making sure that the leaseholders who have been so unfairly caught up in this scandal get the relief and protection they deserve.

    In recent months, we’ve already taken some big steps in the right direction.

    The Building Safety Act came into force over the summer.

    It represents the greatest set of reforms in a generation with a tough new regulator and an even tougher regulatory regime to ensure that people’s homes are made safe.

    The Act means that every block of flats must now have someone who is responsible for a building’s safety and the residents who live in it.

    It also provides far-reaching legal protections to leaseholders so that they’re no longer hit with unfair bills to fix cladding issues.

    For the first time government will have powers to force owners to fix dangerous buildings for which they’re responsible and ensure remediation works are both fast and proportionate.

    Forty-nine of the largest housebuilders have now risen to the challenge set by government and signed a public pledge to fix unsafe buildings that they developed or refurbished. Responsible housebuilders are wasting no time in getting on with fixing those buildings and I look forward to working with this group on our ambitious housing agenda to deliver the homes and growth this country deserves. We will shortly turn those pledges into legally binding contracts, which will give residents confidence that their homes will be made safe and that leaseholders will not have to pay.

    Any housebuilders that fail to act responsibly may be blocked from commencing developments and from being granted building control sign-off for their buildings. This month we have taken steps to set up a scheme in law to show which housebuilders are doing the right thing, and which are failing to do so.

    Our Recovery Strategy Unit will expose and pursue firms and individuals involved in the most egregious cases of building safety neglect. Where freeholders are not coming forward and accepting government money to make buildings safe, this unit will be launching legal action. I expect the first cases to be brought very soon. This government is determined to hold the worst actors to account, deliver for leaseholders, and restore confidence in the housing market.

    But this was never about heaping blame on one part of the sector. It’s about making the whole industry, including construction product manufacturers, play its part in fixing the wrongs of the past.

    That’s one of the reasons why my department is also working hand in hand with the Financial Conduct Authority to ensure that appalling practices within the insurance industry, like the sharing of commissions between brokers and managing agents, which can drive up prices for consumers, are brought to a swift end. I wrote to the British Insurers Brokers Association myself this week and I expect this immoral behaviour to stop immediately.

    It is also why we will continue to work relentlessly with the lending industry to ensure leaseholders are no longer trapped by over the top risk aversion and unnecessary paperwork, freeing them to take their next step on the housing ladder. I welcome their commitments so far but now is the time to see tangible changes to unlock the market.

    We will make homes safer. We will protect leaseholders from crippling costs. And we will work to restore the right of everyone in this country to feel safe in the place where they and their loved ones sleep at night.

  • Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Mini Budget Statement in the House of Commons

    Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Mini Budget Statement in the House of Commons

    The statement made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 23 September 2022.

    Mr Speaker,

    Let me start directly with the issue most worrying the British people – the cost of energy.

    People will have seen the horrors of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

    They will have heard reports that their already-expensive energy bills could reach as high as £6,500 next year.

    Mr Speaker, we were never going to let this happen.

    The Prime Minister has acted with great speed to announce one of the most significant interventions the British state has ever made.

    People need to know that help is coming.

    And help is indeed coming.

    We are taking three steps to support families and businesses with the cost of energy.

    Firstly, to help households, the Energy Price Guarantee will limit the unit price that consumers pay for electricity and gas.

    This means that for the next two years, the typical annual household bill will be £2,500.

    For a typical household, that is a saving of at least £1,000 a year, based on current prices.

    We are continuing our existing plans to give all households £400 off bills this winter.

    So taken together, Mr Speaker, we are cutting everyone’s energy bills by an expected £1,400 this year.

    And millions of the most vulnerable households will receive additional payments, taking their total savings this year to £2,200.

    Secondly, as well as helping people, we need to support the businesses who employ them.

    The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will reduce wholesale gas and electricity prices for all UK businesses, charities, and the public sector like schools and hospitals.

    This will provide a price guarantee equivalent to the one provided for households, for all businesses across the country.

    Thirdly, energy prices are extremely volatile, erratically rising and falling every hour.

    This creates real risks to energy firms who are otherwise viable businesses.

    Those firms help supply the essential energy needed by households and businesses.

    So to support the market, we are announcing the Energy Markets Financing Scheme.

    Delivered with the Bank of England, this scheme will provide a 100% guarantee for commercial banks to offer emergency liquidity to energy traders.

    Mr Speaker,

    The consensus amongst independent forecasters is that the Government’s energy plan will reduce peak inflation by around 5 percentage points.

    It will reduce the cost of servicing index-linked government debt and lower wider cost of living pressures.

    And it will help millions of people and businesses right across the country with the cost of energy.

    Let no one doubt: during the worst energy crisis in generations, this Government is on the side of the British people.

    The Bank of England are taking further steps to control inflation, acting again only yesterday.

    I can assure the House, this Government considers the Bank of England’s independence to be sacrosanct.

    And we remain closely coordinated, with the Governor and myself speaking twice a week.

    But Mr Speaker,

    High energy costs are not the only challenge confronting this country.

    Growth is not as high as it should be.

    This has made it harder to pay for public services, requiring taxes to rise.

    In turn, higher taxes on capital and labour have lowered returns on investment and work, reducing economic incentives and hampering growth still further.

    This cycle has led to the tax burden being forecast to reach the highest levels since the late 1940s – before even Her Late Majesty acceded to the throne.

    We are determined to break that cycle.

    We need a new approach for a new era, focused on growth.

    Our aim, over the medium term, is to reach a trend rate of growth of 2.5%.

    And our plan is to expand the supply side of the economy through tax incentives and reform.

    That is how we will deliver higher wages, greater opportunities, and crucially, fund public services, now and into the future.

    That is how we will compete successfully with dynamic economies around the world.

    That is how we will turn the vicious cycle of stagnation into a virtuous cycle of growth.

    So as a Government, we will focus on growth – even where that means taking difficult decisions.

    None of this is going to happen overnight. But today we are publishing our Growth Plan that sets out a new approach for this new era, built around three central priorities:

    Reforming the supply-side of the economy.
    Maintaining responsible approach to public finances
    And cutting taxes to boost growth.
    Mr Speaker,

    The UK has the second-lowest debt to GDP ratio of any G7 country.

    In due course, we will publish a Medium-Term Fiscal Plan, setting out our responsible fiscal approach more fully.

    Including how we plan to reduce debt as a percentage of GDP over the medium term.

    And the OBR will publish a full economic and fiscal forecast before the end of the year, with a second to follow in the new year.

    Fiscal responsibility remains essential for economic confidence, and it is a path we remain committed to.

    Today we are publishing costings of all the measures the Government has taken.

    And those costings will be incorporated into the OBR’s forecast in the usual way.

    The House should note that the estimated costs of our energy plans are particularly uncertain, given volatile energy prices.

    But based on recent prices, the total cost of the energy package, for the six months from October, is expected to be around £60bn.

    We expect the cost to come down as we negotiate new, long term energy contracts with suppliers.

    And, in the context of a global energy crisis, it is entirely appropriate for the government to use our borrowing powers to fund temporary measures in order to support families and businesses.

    That’s what we did during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    A sizeable intervention was right then…and it is right now.

    The heavy price of inaction would have been far greater than the cost of these schemes.

    Mr Speaker,

    We are at the beginning of a new era.

    As we contemplate this new era, we recognise that there is huge potential in our country.

    We have unbounded entrepreneurial drive.

    We have highly skilled people.

    We have immense global presence in sectors like finance, life sciences, technology, and clean energy.

    But Mr Speaker, there are too many barriers for enterprise. We need a new approach to break them down. That means reforming the supply side of our economy.

    Over the coming weeks, my Cabinet colleagues will update the House on every aspect of our ambitious agenda.

    Those updates will cover: the planning system, business regulations, childcare, immigration, agricultural productivity, and digital infrastructure.

    And Mr Speaker, we start this work today.

    An essential foundation of growth is infrastructure.

    The roads, railways, and networks that carry people, goods, and information all over our country.

    Today, our planning system for major infrastructure is too slow and fragmented.

    The time it takes to get consent for nationally significant projects is getting slower, not quicker, while our international competitors forge ahead.

    We have to end this.

    We can announce that in the coming months, we will bring forward a new Bill to unpick the complex patchwork of planning restrictions and EU-derived laws that constrain our growth.

    We will streamline a whole host of assessments, appraisals, consultations, endless duplications, and regulations.

    We will also review the government’s business case process to speed up decision making.

    And today, we are publishing a list of infrastructure projects that will be prioritised for acceleration, in sectors like transport, energy, and telecoms.

    And, to increase housing supply and enable forthcoming planning reforms, we will also increase the disposal of surplus government land to build new homes.

    Mr Speaker, we are getting out of the way to get Britain building.

    Mr Speaker,

    One of the proudest achievements of our government is that unemployment is at the lowest level for nearly fifty years.

    But with more vacancies than unemployed people to fill them, we need to encourage people to join the labour market.

    We will make work pay by reducing people’s benefits if they don’t fulfil their job search commitments.

    We’ll provide extra support for unemployed over-50s.

    And we’ll ask around 120,000 more people on Universal Credit to take active steps to seek more and better paid work, or face having their benefits reduced.

    And, Mr Speaker,

    At such a critical time for our economy, it is simply unacceptable that strike action is disrupting so many lives.

    Other European countries have Minimum Service Levels to stop militant trade unions closing down transport networks during strikes.

    So we will do the same.

    And we will go further.

    We will legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote, to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down.

    Of course, Mr Speaker, to drive growth, we need new sources of capital investment.

    To this end, I can announce that we will accelerate reforms to the pension charge cap so that it will no longer apply to well-designed performance fees.

    This will unlock pension fund investment into UK assets and innovative, high growth businesses.

    It will benefit savers and increase growth.

    And, we will provide up to £500 million to support new innovative funds and attract billions of additional pounds into UK science and technology scale-ups.

    And Mr Speaker, this brings me to the cap on bankers’ bonuses.

    A strong UK economy has always depended on a strong financial services sector.

    We need global banks to create jobs here, invest here, and pay taxes here in London, not Paris, not Frankfurt, not New York.

    All the bonus cap did was to push up the basic salaries of bankers, or drive activity outside Europe.

    It never capped total remuneration, so let’s not sit here and pretend otherwise.

    So we’re going to get rid of it.

    And to reaffirm the UK’s status as the world’s financial services centre, I will set out an ambitious package of regulatory reforms later in the Autumn.

    But Mr Speaker,

    To support growth right across the country, we need to go further, with targeted action in local areas.

    So today, I can announce the creation of new investment zones.

    We will liberalise planning rules in specified agreed sites, releasing land and accelerating development.

    And we will cut taxes.

    For businesses in designated tax sites, for ten years, there will be:

    Accelerated tax reliefs for structures and buildings.

    And 100% tax relief on qualifying investments in plant and machinery.

    On purchases of land and buildings for commercial or new residential development, there will be no stamp duty to pay whatsoever.

    On newly occupied business premises, there will be no business rates to pay whatsoever.

    And if a business hires a new employee in the tax site, then on the first £50,000 they earn…

    …the employer will pay no National Insurance whatsoever.

    That is an unprecedented set of tax incentives for business to invest, to build, and to create jobs right across the country.

    I can confirm for the House that we’re in early discussions with nearly 40 places like Tees Valley, the West Midlands, Norfolk and the West of England to establish Investment Zones.

    And we’ll work with the devolved administrations and local partners to make sure Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also benefit, if they are willing to do so.

    If we really want to level up, Mr Speaker – we have to unleash the power of the private sector.

    And now, Mr Speaker, we come to tax – central to solving the riddle of growth.

    The tax system is not simply about raising revenue for public services, vitally important though that is. Tax determines the incentives across our whole economy.

    And we believe that high taxes reduce incentives to work, they deter investment and they hinder enterprise.

    As the Prime Minister has said, we will review the tax system to make it simpler, more dynamic, and fairer for families.

    And we are taking that first step today.

    Mr Speaker,

    The interests of businesses are not separate from the interest of individuals and families.

    In fact, it is businesses that employ most people in this country.

    It is businesses that invest in the products and services we rely on.

    Every additional tax on business is ultimately passed through to families through higher prices, lower pay, or lower returns on savings.

    So I can therefore confirm that next year’s planned increase in Corporation Tax will be cancelled.

    The UK’s corporate tax rate will not rise to 25% – it will remain at 19%.

    We will have the lowest rate of Corporation Tax in the G20.

    This will plough almost £19bn a year back into the economy.

    That’s £19bn for businesses to reinvest, create jobs, raise wages, or pay the dividends that support our pensions.

    I’ve already taken steps elsewhere in this statement to support financial services, so the Bank Surcharge will remain at 8%.

    But, Mr Speaker, we will do more to encourage private investment.

    The Annual Investment Allowance, which gives 100% tax relief on investments in plant and machinery, will not fall to £200,000 as planned…

    It will remain at £1m.

    And it will do so permanently.

    Our duty is to make the UK one of the most competitive economies in the world – and we are delivering.

    And Mr Speaker,

    We want this country to be an entrepreneurial, share-owning democracy.

    The Enterprise Investment Scheme. The Venture Capital Trusts. We will extend them beyond 2025.

    The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme. Company Share Option Plans. We will increase the limits to make them more generous.

    Crucial steps on the road to making this a nation of entrepreneurs.

    Mr Speaker,

    For the tax system to favour growth, it needs to be much simpler.

    I’m hugely grateful to the Office of Tax Simplification for everything they have achieved since 2010.

    But instead of a single arms-length body which is separate from the Treasury and HMRC, we need to embed tax simplification into the heart of Government.

    That is why I have decided to wind down the Office of Tax Simplification, and mandated every one of my tax officials to focus on simplifying our tax code.

    To achieve a simpler system, I will start by removing unnecessary costs for business.

    Firstly, we will automatically sunset EU regulations by December 2023, requiring departments to review, replace or repeal retained EU law.

    This will reduce burdens on business, improve growth, and restore the primacy of UK legislation.

    Mr Speaker, we can also simplify the IR35 rules – and we will.

    In practice, reforms to off-payroll working have added unnecessary complexity and cost for many businesses.

    So, as promised by My RHF the Prime Minister, we will repeal the 2017 and 2021 reforms.

    Of course, we will continue to keep compliance closely under review.

    Mr Speaker,

    Britain welcomes millions of tourists every year, and I want our high streets and airports, our ports and our shopping centres, to feel the economic benefit.

    So we have decided to introduce VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors.

    We will replace the old paper-based system with a modern, digital one.

    And this will be in place as soon as possible.

    This is a priority for our great British retailers – so it is our priority, too.

    Our drive to modernise also extends to alcohol duties.

    I have listened to industry concerns about the ongoing reforms.

    I will therefore introduce an 18-month transitional measure for wine duty.

    I will also extend draught relief to cover smaller kegs of 20 litres and above, to help smaller breweries.

    And, at this difficult time, we are not going to let alcohol duty rates rise in line with RPI.

    So I can announce that the planned increases in the duty rates for beer, for cider, for wine, and for spirits will all be cancelled.

    Now, Mr Speaker, we come to the question of personal taxation.

    It is an important principle that people should keep more of the money they earn. And it is good policy to boost the incentives for work and enterprise.

    Yesterday, we introduced a Bill that means the Health and Social Care Levy will not begin next year… it will be cancelled.

    The increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions and dividends tax… will be cancelled.

    And the interim increase in the National Insurance rate, brought in for this tax year…will be cancelled.

    And this cut will take effect from the earliest possible moment, November 6th.

    Reversing the Levy delivers a tax cut for 28 million people, worth, on average, £330 every year;

    A tax cut for nearly a million businesses;

    And I can confirm: the additional funding for the NHS and social care services will be maintained at the same level.

    Mr Speaker,

    I have another measure.

    Today’s statement is about growth.

    Home ownership is the most common route for people to own an asset, giving them a stake in the success of our economy and society.

    So to support growth, increase confidence, and help families aspiring to own their own home, I can announce that we are cutting stamp duty.

    In the current system, there is no stamp duty to pay on the first £125,000 of a property’s value.

    We are doubling that – to £250,000.

    First time buyers currently pay no stamp duty on the first £300,000.

    We’re increasing that threshold as well, to £425,000.

    And we’re going to increase the value of the property on which first time buyers can claim relief, from £500,000 to £625,000.

    The steps we’ve taken today mean 200,000 more people will be taken out of paying stamp duty altogether.

    This is a permanent cut to stamp duty, effective from today.

    And Mr Speaker,

    I have another measure.

    High tax rates damage Britain’s competitiveness.

    They reduce the incentive to work, invest, and start a business.

    And the higher the tax, the more ways people seek to avoid them, or work elsewhere or simply work less…

    …rather than putting their time and effort to more creative and productive ends.

    Take the additional rate of income tax.

    At 45%, it is currently higher than the headline top rate in G7 countries like the US and Italy.

    And it is higher even than social democracies like Norway.

    But I’m not going to cut the additional rate of tax today, Mr Speaker.

    I’m going to abolish it altogether.

    From April 2023, we will have a single higher rate of income tax of 40 per cent.

    This will simplify the tax system and make Britain more competitive.

    It will reward enterprise and work.

    It will incentivise growth.

    It will benefit the whole economy and whole country.

    And, Mr Speaker, after all, this only returns us to the same top rate we had for 20 years.

    And that’s not all.

    I can announce today that we will cut the basic rate of income tax to 19p in April 2023 – one year early.

    That means a tax cut for over 31 million people in just a few months’ time.

    This means we will have one of the most competitive and pro-growth income tax systems in the world.

    Mr Speaker,

    For too long in this country, we have indulged in a fight over redistribution.

    Now, we need to focus on growth, not just how we tax and spend.

    We won’t apologise for managing the economy in a way that increases prosperity and living standards.

    Our entire focus is on making Britain more globally competitive – not losing out to our competitors abroad.

    The Prime Minister promised that this would be a tax-cutting government.

    Today, we have cut stamp duty.

    We have allowed businesses to keep more of their own money to invest, to innovate, and to grow.

    We have cut income tax and national insurance for millions of workers.

    And we are securing our place in a fiercely competitive global economy…

    …with lower rates of corporation tax…

    …and lower rates of personal tax.

    We promised to prioritise growth.

    We promised a new approach for a new era.

    We promised, Mr Speaker, to release the enormous potential of this country.

    Our Growth Plan has delivered all those promises and more.

    And I commend it to the House.

  • Luke Pollard – 2022 Speech on Ukraine

    Luke Pollard – 2022 Speech on Ukraine

    The speech made by Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

    I start by welcoming the wonderful news of the release of British prisoners of war overnight. It is welcome that they are returning home, but we recognise the pain and hurt of all the families involved, because not everyone is returning safely.

    I also welcome the Minister’s new job in the Cabinet. Before the last reshuffle, the shadow Front Bench team said to the Front Bench team that we were hoping that he and the Defence Secretary would stay in their positions, and they have. I also welcome the new Minister, the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, the hon. Member for Wrexham (Sarah Atherton), to her place.

    Seven months on from Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine, we have reached a new and critical phase of the ongoing conflict. We should all be inspired by the remarkable resilience of the people of Ukraine, who have refused to bow to Russia’s oppression. I recognise the extraordinary Ukrainian counter-offensives that have taken place in recent weeks, which the Minister set out in such detail.

    Our argument has never been with the Russian people but with the dictator in the Kremlin. Overnight, we have seen brave Russian civilians stand up to the authoritarian state that curbs their freedom, restricts their voice and keeps the people in poverty while the oligarchs count their yachts and villas. Today, possibly thousands of Russian civilians are in jail, arrested simply for exercising their human right to protest. As we have stood with the Ukrainian people against aggression, I make special mention in the House of the courage of those protesters.

    The horrors of war that we have seen in the newly liberated areas remind us of the atrocities and the pain that many Ukrainians have suffered in the past weeks. I join the Minister in setting out a clear determination that those responsible must be prosecuted and brought to justice for the hideous war crimes that we are seeing unfolding.

    Dr Murrison

    It is welcome news that a load of generals and colonels have been sanctioned and placed in The Hague’s waiting room, as it were, but does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need to go much further down the food chain than that? Each and every one of the individuals involved in those atrocities needs to have their card marked. They have dishonoured the profession of bearing arms and need to be dealt with sooner or later.

    Luke Pollard

    I agree with the right hon. Gentleman. Anyone who perpetrates war crimes against civilians must know that, in the 21st century, they will be prosecuted and followed in the pursuit of justice from the day they commit that atrocity to the day they die. We must not leave any space, justification or excuse for war crimes— at all, anywhere, ever. That is a message that will be sent from hon. Members on both sides of the House to those people, regardless of rank, who have persecuted civilians and committed war crimes against them.

    Alicia Kearns

    One of my grave concerns is the prosecution of sexual violence in conflict. The issue is that, often, we cannot get the evidence, because by the time the prosecution has come—once the shame has been allowed to pass and there has been discussion—it is too late to collect that evidence. I would welcome the hon. Gentleman’s thoughts on a special tribunal formed to collect evidence and prosecute sexual crimes to ensure that, in all conflicts, evidence is collected at the start to ensure prosecutions at a later stage.

    Luke Pollard

    I am grateful for that intervention. The shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and International Development, my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty), and I were in Kosovo only a few months ago, where we witnessed the effects of the horrible sexual violence that was used as a weapon of war. The determination of the international community then was that it would never be repeated, but it has been in conflicts ever since. We need to make sure that not only is the evidence collected, but the victims are given the support that they will need, in many cases, for the rest of their lives. As we made it clear that killing civilians will not be countenanced, so we make it clear that using rape and sexual assault as a weapon of war will not be countenanced. We will come after those people as well.

    Bob Seely

    In the Syrian war, the Russians and their Syrian allies targeted hospitals as primary targets. Does the hon. Member agree it is regrettable that at the time we did not say and do more and that the international community did not say and do more to hold responsible those senior army officers who were responsible for the deliberate targeting of hospitals, which is one of the most basic breaches of the Geneva conventions?

    Luke Pollard

    I am grateful for the hon. Member’s intervention, and I do tend to agree with him. As a country, we need to take stock of the freedom that Putin has been given over many years—not just in Syria or parts of the countries bordering his country, but in Crimea—because the tactics the Russians are using in Ukraine now have been perfected over many years and the space the international community has given him to do that has encouraged the use of many of those tactics. We need to look carefully at how we stand up for such individuals in the future, but we will do that by standing firmly with the people of Ukraine at this time. I will make some progress before I give way again.

    It is clear that Vladimir Putin is a bully. His partial mobilisation announcements along with his sham referendums to illegally annex large swathes of Ukraine are shameless. They are a cynical attempt to justify a war that has gone badly wrong for Russia. We should view partial mobilisation as weakness—an attempt to hide the fact that, so far, Russian strategy has failed, weapons have failed, command and control has failed, and none of Russia’s war objectives has been met. Putin’s latest miscalculation will lead to more Russian families losing their sons, more Ukrainians being killed and more suffering. The mobilised forces sent to Ukraine will be on the receiving end of high-end western weaponry, and a determined and morally just Ukrainian military defending every inch of its country. In these circumstances, with the poorly equipped Russian conscripts facing cold weather, it is perhaps not surprising that we are seeing so many reports of desertion and troops being unwilling to fight. That means Putin will, I regret, resort to more and more fear to try to achieve his objectives.

    Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)

    I think the cross-party support we are hearing today for Ukraine and for the victims of murder and sexual violence sends a very powerful message. Does the hon. Member agree that the next challenge, even though it feels early to be thinking this yet, is to be preparing to win the peace? Quite often in the past, when we have left military successes—Iraq would be the outstanding example—we have not laid strong foundations to win the peace. Does he agree that we could use our soft power and places such as Wilton Park to hold conferences with the Ukrainians about what sort of democracy and peace we can help them create after this is all over.

    Luke Pollard

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, and I agree with him that our commitment to the people of Ukraine has to be long term—ensuring not only that they win and Putin fails, but that they can rebuild a nation that is proudly sovereign, proudly independent, safe and secure, and able to stand tall on the international stage, which is precisely what Vladimir Putin would fear the most. That is what our commitment must be, and I share the hon. Gentleman’s view that that commitment and determination is cross-party—from every single party in this place.

    The actions and rhetoric we are seeing from Vladimir Putin are not new, sadly. I agree with the Minister when he says that Putin’s words on the use of nuclear weapons is sabre rattling, and it is a weakness of his argument that he is resorting to it. These are the actions of a desperate man clinging to power at the helm of a pariah state. His threats should not only be condemned by every party in our Parliament, as they are, but by every country—every peace-loving country—on this planet. His actions show how desperate he is, how weak he is and how much he has miscalculated, and those actions show that he must fail.

    We must not downplay the seriousness of the situation. People at home and abroad, having heard those words, are understandably worried about the gravity of the threats that have been made by Russia. In this House, however, we must be careful not to fan the flames of Putin’s information war of fake news. I think I speak for everyone in this place when I say that now is not the time for the UK to weaken or dilute our resolve for Ukraine, but to remember that at heart Putin is a bully and the only way of standing up to a bully is by making sure that we do so firmly and determinedly, and that such a commitment is long lasting.

    Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)

    I completely agree with what my hon. Friend is saying about Ukraine now, but we could have been saying it back in 2014. One problem is that we did not take this issue seriously enough in 2014, because that emboldened Putin and now we see what we see. I worry that sometimes we focus exclusively on things that Putin says about nuclear weapons, and not enough on the warfare in which he has already engaged with this country through cyber, targeting many Members of the House and the political establishment. Do we need to do far more to ensure that we are protecting ourselves?

    Luke Pollard

    I agree with my hon. Friend. His has been a siren voice that has been warning this House and the public about Putin’s actions for a great many years, and we must ensure that those lessons are learned. Putin has been telling the international community what he wants to do for many years, and he has been engaging in economic warfare, cyber-warfare, disinformation and political interference for many years. We need to strengthen all our fronts if we are to deter that type of behaviour, not only from Russia but from other states that wish to do us harm in the future.

    Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) (Lab/Co-op)

    To follow on from the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant), my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) was with me in Kosovo a couple of months ago where we heard about a Russian disinformation, misinformation, and hacking centre that employs thousands of personnel in Serbia. Do we also need to take this fight to third countries that are facilitating Russian misinformation, disinformation and hacking, including in Ukraine, the Balkans, the Baltic states and around the world?

    Luke Pollard

    My hon. Friend is right. The cyber-campaigns against the west and against freedom and democracy are not contained only to bot factories in St Petersburg; they are deliberately being deployed around the world through, in many cases attempts of deniable cyber-warfare. We know that is coming, and we must ensure that we strengthen our own defences—political, military, economic and cyber—against that. At this very moment there are probably enormous numbers of posts on social media feeds across Britain that are seeking to spread misinformation. We must be alive to the reasons why they are there, to why Russia is investing in that capability, to what effect they are seeking to create in our society, and we must counter that. That is a job not only for ourselves, but we must also support our allies in doing so.

    We need a long-term joined-up strategy. We know that despite Putin’s strategic miscalculation, Russian aggression will continue. The Government have had Labour’s full backing to provide military support to Ukrainian troops, and they will continue to have that. We welcome the new Prime Minister’s confirmation that this year’s military funding for Ukraine will, as a minimum, be matched over the next year. However, we now need to set out a clear strategy for what military, economic and diplomatic support for Ukraine will be. In summer the Government said that they would set out a roadmap for that, and I would be grateful if, when he responds to the debate, the Minister said when he expects that to be published.

    Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)

    Does the hon. Gentleman agree that one important aspect of that is that a great many other eastern European countries and former Soviet states along the Russian border have been carefully watching what happens in Ukraine with some trepidation? It is as important to have a long-term strategy for Ukraine as it is to reassure those countries of NATO’s commitment to their future.

    Luke Pollard

    I agree with the hon. Lady. Our commitment to our allies in eastern Europe must be concrete and long-term, and we must also consider the tactics and strategies used by Russia in Ukraine to update how we plan to defend and deter any aggression. We have seen with the development of pinpoint accuracy artillery fire and loitering munitions that some of the tactics we once thought we would deploy may need to be updated to ensure that we can deter any threat and, if a threat moves to actual military conflict, that we can win in those circumstances. I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s intervention.

    The strategy that I hope the Minister will outline should set up long-term, politically broad support for Ukraine in the future, because only a long-term strategy will reassure the Ukrainians, and also the British people, that we will stand unwaveringly with their country. It will also send a clear, unmistakable message to the Kremlin that Britain will continue to stand with Ukraine and our NATO allies for as long as it takes to see off Russian aggression, not just in Ukraine, but in the Baltic states, in Bosnia and Kosovo, in the Mediterranean and the middle east, in the north Atlantic and the high north, and on social media as well.

    That means that we need to look at the Prime Minister’s announcement in updating the integrated review. The Prime Minister’s commitment to match the funding for military assistance to Ukraine next year is welcome, but we are yet to see the action plan that will give us the detail. We need to see that in the context of the UK’s wider defence arrangements. A few weeks ago, the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Defence Secretary visited the British Army’s outstanding training program for Ukrainian forces, meeting the brave Ukrainian troops who are by now on the frontline, fighting in the Donbas, having been armed with British skill on that training program. This is a vital training program for the Ukrainians, which should be expanded and extended throughout next year and beyond, if the Ukrainians need it, and should also include cold weather training.

    This week the Prime Minister also confirmed that the Government will update the integrated review of foreign and defence policy in response to the ongoing situation in Ukraine. I welcome this U-turn, which is good news. While Labour has been arguing for months for the need to update our defence plans, 20 of our NATO allies have already rebooted their defence plans and their spending since the invasion of Ukraine started in February. The decision that has now been taken should have been based on national security, not the Conservative leadership contest, but it is a welcome U-turn. Labour is ready to contribute and happy to support the Government in making sure that the next integrated review corrects the mistakes of the current one. However, if we want to pursue the persistent global engagement that was so present in the last integrated review, we must not cut 10,000 troops from our Army, and should look again at scrapping Hercules military transport planes, the plans to cut 10% of the reserves and our failure to have a war-fighting division able to be contributed to NATO until 2030.

    An updated integrated review must also make British industry and our peacetime defence procurement systems a major priority. We cannot support Ukraine in the long term or ensure our own UK security when, on day 211 of this conflict, the MOD has still not proved capable of signing the contract to produce replacement stocks for the highly valued NLAW—next generation light anti-tank weapon—missiles that the Ukrainians are using to defend against the Russians. I would be grateful if, in summing up, the Minister set out when the Government expect that contract to be signed and when those missiles will be delivered, because depleting our stockpile is not a good strategic answer.

    Wayne David

    I very much agree with my hon. Friend. Does he also agree that it is essential that, at this crucial time especially, the Government do not make snide remarks about our European partners? It is very important to have the maximum unity in opposing what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

    Luke Pollard

    Rebuilding our European relations is a key part of making any integrated foreign policy review work. Those of us on the Opposition Benches can say very clearly that our friends across the channel are our friends. They are not our foes—there is not a question mark about it—and we stand with them in the face of Russian aggression. This is not a political game to be played. When the Kremlin can find division between the allies of the west, it will exploit it. We must stand firmly with our allies against this.

    It would be remiss of me not to mention the armed forces’ incredible contribution on display last week during the late Queen’s state funeral. As a Plymouth MP, I am especially proud of the contribution of forces based across the south-west of England. I would like to put on record Labour’s thanks for the armed forces’ steadfast dedication to our country. They really have shown the best of Britain, and we are incredibly grateful for the part they played and continue to play in supporting Ukraine against Russian oppression. It was an honour to meet today, on a cross-party basis, some of the pallbearers who carried the Queen’s coffin.

    Finally, on the Labour Benches, we are taught, as part of the trade union movement, that unity is strength—that we stand together and we are not divided. I say to the Minister that this is now a cross-party sentiment in this place, because it is the strength of Westminster when the party that I represent, the party now in government and every other party stand together in the face of such aggression, and we will continue to do so until Ukraine is free.

  • James Heappey – 2022 Statement on Ukraine

    James Heappey – 2022 Statement on Ukraine

    The statement made by James Heappey, the Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

    I beg to move,

    That this House has considered the situation in Ukraine.

    This is a timely debate. Since my right hon. Friend the Defence Secretary last updated the House on 5 September, the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive has made rapid progress along three axes—west, north and east of Kherson. In lightning advances through the eastern region of Kharkiv, the cities of Izyum and Balakliya have been liberated. In the east of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine has now secured bridgeheads on the east bank of the Oskil river where Russia is attempting to consolidate its defences. Most recently, the Ukrainian authorities report that a village close to the eastern city of Lysychansk has been recaptured. That is a significant achievement as it means that Russia no longer has full control of the Luhansk region—the self-proclaimed “people’s republic”.

    So far, Kyiv says that as much 6,000 sq km of territory has been recaptured. Russia’s forces withdrew from the region in the face of the Ukrainian advance, while a significant number of troops deserted or surrendered. The withdrawal was anything but orderly, with large quantities of munitions and equipment abandoned. Russian airborne forces have also suffered substantial losses and fear being cut off from the main Russian force. As the Russian army attempts to consolidate on a new defensive line, poor logistics mean that its troops are without food and supplies, morale continues to plummet, and the Kremlin is worried about how to stop widespread desertion.

    On day 211 of a five-day operation, none of Russia’s initial objectives has been achieved. Its attempt to take Kyiv was thwarted. Its efforts to weaken NATO have backfired. Indeed, with Finland and Sweden joining, as a direct result of Russia’s aggression against its neighbours, the alliance has never been stronger. Not only do Russian casualties continue to climb, with an estimated 25,000 Russian dead, but tens of thousands have been injured and tens of thousands more have already deserted. Russia’s war machine is now severely depleted, with more than 3,000 armoured and protected vehicles destroyed, more than 400 artillery pieces decimated and scores of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles downed.

    Seven months into this conflict, Russia lacks sufficient manpower in the field to achieve any of its objectives and the mood of Moscow is changing. Voices from across Russian society are speaking out against the military command and making barely veiled criticism of Putin himself. The reality is that Ukraine is winning. That is the context in which we should understand Putin’s latest escalation yesterday.

    Mr Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)

    The Minister spoke about the mood in Moscow. We saw President Putin’s ludicrous recent announcement that he would consider any attack on any areas that he now considered Russian to be an attack that could be met with a nuclear response. Will the Minister reaffirm the conviction of this House that we will not be bullied by President Putin, that the Ukrainians have our complete support and that, if Putin wants to bring an end to this violence, he can do so at any moment—

    Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)

    Order. I think the Minister has got it.

    James Heappey

    Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, but the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: the nuclear sabre-rattling—that is what it is—is the act of a desperate man who knows that this is not going his way. We will not be deterred from doing what we have done so successfully for the past nine months.

    Bob Seely (Isle of Wight) (Con)

    My right hon. Friend speaks of sabre-rattling. Clearly, there is a great deal of bluff and threat and Putin is trying to break the alliance between Kyiv and the west. Are the Government saying that it is their belief that this is purely bluff?

    James Heappey

    My hon. Friend, more than anybody in the House perhaps, will know that the Government’s exact intelligence assessment is not something to be shared in the House. However, as I said in response to the previous intervention, we believe it is sabre-rattling and that it is designed to drive a wedge into the cohesion of the western alliance and to deter us from supporting Ukraine at the exact moment when Ukrainian troops seem to have the upper hand.

    Sir Iain Duncan Smith (Chingford and Woodford Green) (Con)

    If I may pursue that a little further, we have always known that Russia sees what we used to call tactical nuclear weapons as war-fighting weapons rather than strategic ones. Although NATO has said it will not be bullied, in truth, NATO is not directly involved in this conflict. What does my right hon. Friend think might happen if Russia were to use one of those weapons as a way of deterring it? What does that do to the alliance’s position?

    James Heappey

    I hope my right hon. Friend will allow me, but I am not going to discuss nuclear doctrine at the Dispatch Box.

    Sir Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)

    In response to the intervention by the hon. Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins) about not being bullied, what discussions are the UK Government having with our American counterparts, who are saying they want a negotiation without specifying what the baseline of the negotiation is? Will we be making it clear that the baseline is that Russia has to get out of all occupied Ukraine as the basis for the negotiation?

    James Heappey

    I suspect my hon. Friend knows that we speak to our American and Ukrainian counterparts daily at every level, from the military operational level through to heads of Government. The UK and the US are entirely aligned in their view that this ends on President Zelensky’s terms; it is for him to define what the end state is. I have heard nothing from Washington to suggest that that is not also their view.

    Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)

    Nevertheless, will my right hon. Friend accept that unless we are going to defeat Russia in classical terms, which is unlikely and undesirable, there has to be an off-ramp to allow Putin to construct a narrative that will go down well among his population and through the media, which of course he controls? It is not acceptable to say that we cannot offer Putin something out of this that will enable him to save face and get whatever it is through with his population.

    James Heappey

    I am not sure I agree entirely with my right hon. Friend. If Putin were looking for an off-ramp, he has had plenty of opportunities to de-escalate and claim victory at some point along the route. In the 48 hours immediately following a mobilisation of Russian society—a clear escalation—I am certainly not going to stand here representing His Majesty’s Government and say that he deserves any further opportunities for an off-ramp, when he has made his decision on what should come next.

    Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)

    Recent shocking reports of war crimes and mass graves discovered in newly liberated areas of Ukraine are further evidence of the appalling conduct of Russian forces and the need to hold them to account. Can the Minister confirm what support our Government are providing to Ukrainian prosecutors and international efforts through the International Criminal Court to document, investigate and prosecute those crimes?

    James Heappey

    From memory, it is the Canadians who have taken the lead on that internationally, but the Ministry of Justice is engaged in supporting their efforts. Obviously, as we work with the Ukrainians and see evidence of those outrages, through the closeness of our relationship and the way we are sharing information so freely, we are passing the information on outrages, when we find them, to the appropriate international bodies to ensure that they are prosecuted.

    Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP) rose—

    James Heappey

    I would like to make some progress if I may, but I will come to the hon. Gentleman later.

    Vladimir Putin has been forced to announce a partial mobilisation, breaking his own promise not to mobilise parts of his population. He has brought in amendments to the criminal code, increasing penalties for desertion, surrender and refusal to fight, and he has agreed to imminent sham referendums in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, effectively annexing those territories.

    Russia is unlikely to be able to muster the 300,000 mobilised reservists quickly, let alone deploy them as an effective fighting force. Indeed, Putin’s remarks sparked mass panic in Russia yesterday, with one-way flights out of Moscow immediately selling out. Putin is rattled and his tactics transparent. He is implicitly acknowledging his heavy losses and his armed forces’ inability to achieve any of their objectives. His false narratives, escalatory rhetoric and nuclear sabre-rattling are all, bluntly, admissions of failure.

    It is clear that Putin and his Defence Minister have backed themselves into a corner. They have sent tens of thousands of their own citizens to their deaths, ill-equipped and badly led, and they are now to send hundreds of thousands more—with little training and no winter uniform—into the teeth of the Ukrainian winter against an opponent that is motivated, well equipped and succeeding. Neither Putin’s nor Shoigu’s lies, threats and propaganda can disguise the truth: Russian conscripts are going to suffer horribly for the Kremlin’s hubris.

    Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)

    A key consideration as Russia mobilises will be atrocity prevention. That will be essential. Will the Minister ask the Prime Minister to make it a matter for the National Security Secretariat and ensure that it is at the very heart of the UK’s strategy?

    James Heappey

    The straight answer is that atrocity prevention has always been at the centre of our strategy, trying to deny the Russians the ability to take Ukrainian territory in order to commit those atrocities. Our priority since Ukrainian territory has been taken is to give the Ukrainians the means to retake that territory as quickly as possible, so that they can get in there and investigate what has been done.

    Jim Shannon

    I reinforce what the Minister has said, but I also want to outline the human rights issue and all the atrocities taking place in the occupied territory. For instance, 400 Baptist churches have been destroyed and pastors of Baptist churches have gone missing—they have disappeared and we do not know where they are. Families have been displaced and believers have had to move. That is an example of the barbarity and violence of the Russians against churches and against the right to freedom of religious belief.

    James Heappey

    The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and I know he speaks with real conviction on matters of freedom of religion. It is extraordinary to me, every day that we read of a recaptured town or village, to hear what has been happening, on our continent, in 2022. It is all the motivation we need to maintain course and speed and keep doing what we are doing to support Ukraine so it can retake its territory as quickly as possible.

    Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)

    As the Kremlin grows more desperate, the disinformation grows more dishonest. What more can we do to ensure that the false narrative the Kremlin is seeking to peddle—namely, the complete dishonesty and fallacy that there are NATO troops in Ukraine—is entirely exposed for the sham that it is?

    James Heappey

    I think we have been clear throughout that NATO is not an active participant in this conflict. Putin tries to claim daily on Russian television that it is, but in reality, all that NATO has done as an organisation since February is to reinforce its eastern flank to guard against contagion in the conflict. It is purely a false narrative peddled by President Putin to say anything otherwise.

    Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)

    Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the safe return of the Ukrainian prisoners of war, including the five British nationals?

    James Heappey

    I absolutely will. I place on the record our enormous gratitude to the Ukrainian Government, for it is they who negotiated that release. We are hugely grateful to them for doing so.

    In the face of—

    Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton) (Con)

    Will my hon. Friend give way?

    James Heappey

    I was nearly there. I will give way one last time.

    Alicia Kearns

    I thank my right hon. Friend for that point about the hostages. However, Paul Urey’s family will have found yesterday incredibly difficult because he did not come home alive. Will the Minister please reassure me that the Government are doing all they can to hold Russian proxies to account for Paul Urey’s murder—it was exactly that—by a state?

    James Heappey

    We certainly are doing all we can. If my hon. Friend has any particular concerns, I would be very happy to meet her to discuss them.

    Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con)

    Will my hon. Friend give way?

    James Heappey

    One last time.

    Philip Dunne

    I am most grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way just before he winds up. The Prime Minister reconfirmed earlier this week the United Kingdom’s leadership across the western alliance in undertaking that the British Government would maintain their commitment to supporting the Ukrainian Government with both munitions and finance. Before he finishes, is there anything the Minister could add to her statement to elaborate on what that means?

    James Heappey

    Oh that I were approaching the wind- up of my speech—although I will attempt to accelerate. The detail that my right hon. Friend is hoping for is a few pages away: we will get to it.

    In the face of such irresponsible language, we must show our resolve. Ukraine and the international community will never accept the outcomes of those referendums. The UK, alongside the international community, stands united behind Ukraine, and we will continue to do all we can to support it. Russia must be held to account for its illegal invasion and continued crimes against humanity.

    As we have already discussed, the evidence of these crimes continues to mount. Within the past week, the Kremlin has fired long-range missiles at Kharkiv and used missiles to strike Pivdennoukrainsk, Ukraine’s second largest nuclear power plant. A dam on the Inhulets river at Kryvyi Rih has been attacked for no ostensible military value, and a psychiatric hospital has been fired on, killing patients and medics. In the pine forests of Izyum, we have seen once more appalling evidence of war crimes—as we seem to every time Russian troops are driven out of an area.

    So far, the UN has verified that at least 5,916 civilians have died, including, sadly, 379 children. The complete toll is almost certainly higher and millions more have been displaced because of Putin’s actions. Meanwhile, Russia’s reckless behaviour around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant—the biggest of its kind in Europe—has continued. Currently, all six of the plant’s nuclear reactors are offline, and the situation remains precarious despite repair to one of the power plant’s power lines, which provides vital electricity to cool the reactors.

    Putin’s callous actions are having a devastating effect not just inside Ukraine. Russia’s weaponisation of Ukrainian grain supply has had global ramifications, undermining food security and causing rising food prices. The brokering of the Black sea grain initiative between the UN and Turkey—assisted by the UK’s diplomatic efforts—is now having an impact. To date, some 165 ships bound for Europe, the middle east, Africa and Asia have left Ukrainian ports, carrying around 3.7 million tonnes of food.

    Dr Luke Evans (Bosworth) (Con)

    Will my hon. Friend give way?

    James Heappey

    If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I will make progress just so that I do not test Madam Deputy Speaker’s patience.

    That has in turn precipitated a drop in global food prices, but it is essential that the current deal is extended beyond its initial 120 days and that Russia does not renege on that agreement. Unsurprisingly, food security is high on the agenda as world leaders meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week. Russian aggression is causing hundreds of millions of people in the global south to go hungry, or even starve. Putin must answer for that.

    The destructive effects of Putin’s war underline why it is essential that it ends on President Zelensky’s terms, and why the UK must maintain its unstinting support. The UK is proud to have been the first European country to provide weapons to Ukraine, and proud of our efforts to help it to defend itself from land, sea and air. To enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against Putin’s brutal use of long-range artillery, we have sent them the multiple-launch rocket system with hundreds of missiles, which can strike targets up to 80 km away with pinpoint accuracy. These continue to have a major impact on the battlefield. I place on the record the UK’s thanks to Norway, which donated three platforms to the UK, enabling us to send more of our own platforms to Ukraine.

    To date, we have also gifted more than 10,000 anti-tank missiles, almost 200 armoured vehicles, 2,600 anti-structure munitions, almost 100,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, nearly 3 million rounds of small arms ammunition, 28 M109 155 mm self-propelled guns, 36 L119 105mm light artillery guns and ammunition, 4.5 tonnes of plastic explosives, maritime Brimstone missiles, six Stormer air defence armoured fighting vehicles fitted with Starstreak anti-air missiles and hundreds of missiles, and thousands of integrated air defence systems, uncrewed systems and innovative new electronic warfare equipment. We have also deployed a British Army squadron with Challenger 2 tanks to Poland to backfill for the T-72 tanks that Poland has donated to Ukraine.

    The funding package that we announced on 30 June is being used to deliver further matériel, including more than 100 logistics support vehicles, more armoured fighting vehicles, a further 600 short range air defence missiles, an additional 30,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, more integrated air defence systems, uncrewed systems and innovative new electronic warfare equipment, and more than 20,000 sets of winter clothing. In all, the UK has spent £2.3 billion, and is the second largest donor in the world.

    Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)

    I thank the Minister for giving way. I think there is strong cross-party support for the assistance that the British Government have given. The Ukrainians themselves say that they want longer-range missiles and more tanks, particularly from Germany. What is the Government’s position on that, and what are they doing to encourage other countries to respond positively to those requests?

    James Heappey

    I speak to my Ukrainian counterpart each week—often numerous times a week—as does the Secretary of State. At the military level, we are speaking all the time. We have a good understanding of what the Ukrainians need, and in reality, it is all those things. There is a sort of baseline of ammunition to keep them in the fight tomorrow, the day after and the day after that. Then there are the things they need to build a force capable of retaking territory. We are working on delivering it all, not just by ourselves but with our partners around Europe. Ukraine will continue to get all the support that it needs as it seeks to mount a counter-offensive this autumn and beyond.

    Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)

    It is very important to the war effort in Ukraine that Ukrainian culture is seen and appreciated in the UK. Earlier this year, I raised with the previous Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), the support needed to allow musicians from Ukraine, such as the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, to perform at the BBC Proms. That performance by the musicians who had fled the war in Ukraine was made possible by a visa fee waiver and support with visa processing. As there is now uncertainty, will the Minister discuss the issue with the Home Secretary so that she can confirm that that essential support will be extended to other Ukrainians who are looking to enter and perform in the UK?

    James Heappey

    I am grateful to have been asked to speak to the Home Secretary, because although I have some expertise on where in the world 152 mm ammunition is manufactured, that is something I had not heard of. I will speak to the Home Secretary and come back to the hon. Lady as quickly as I can.

    Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)

    We all warmly support the effective military support that this country is giving to Ukraine, but is the Minister addressing the obvious depleting of our own reserves of available missiles?

    James Heappey

    We absolutely are. Under the previous Prime Minister and under the current one, the Treasury was given very clear instructions, which it has been delighted to follow, to replace everything that we give on a new-for-old deal. We are grateful to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for agreeing to that.

    John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)

    Providing the cash is very welcome and necessary, but is there not a fundamental problem with equipment manufacture and particularly supply chain vulnerabilities, which do not just apply to the UK? What steps is the Department taking to mobilise the defence industry and its supply chain to ensure that those obstacles are overcome, and rapidly, for our supply as well as Ukraine’s?

    James Heappey

    The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and he is expert in these matters. It is certainly the case that countries have depleted their own stockpiles to support Ukraine, and as a result of a profoundly changed global security situation, everybody has committed more money to defence. Although that is great news for the defence industry in the medium term, it brings with it more demand than current manufacturing capacity can supply. The former Minister for Defence Procurement, my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Jeremy Quin)—sadly, he left the Ministry of Defence in the latest reshuffle, but he has been brilliantly replaced by the new one, my right hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell (Alec Shelbrooke)—worked hard to make sure that that new manufacturing capacity is brought online as quickly as possible.

    Training is as important as military hardware. Here, too, the UK has been in the vanguard, busily establishing a network of camps to train 10,000 Ukrainians. This has been accompanied by specialist armed training across a number of countries in Europe. To date, we have trained more than 4,700 troops from the armed forces of Ukraine in the UK, and our units are being joined by forces from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand. Our training offer is already making a difference to Ukraine’s combat effectiveness, and it will continue for as long as Ukraine wishes.

    Ukraine has proven its capability not just to halt the invasion but to roll the Russians back. Those who contended that the support provided by the UK and our international partners was futile have been proven wrong, but Ukraine now needs more support to get through the winter, to push home its position of advantage and to recover its territorial integrity. That means helping Ukraine to replenish its stockpiles of equipment and ammunition as well as service its existing kit. It means helping Ukraine to plug its capability gap and refurbish the equipment captured in recent offensives. It also means making sure that as temperatures plummet to minus 20° and below, Ukrainian soldiers remain warm, well fed and motivated while Russian soldiers freeze without any concern from their leaders in the Kremlin.

    At the beginning of August, at the invitation of the Danish Government, the Secretary of State co-chaired a conference to discuss further support for Ukraine on training, equipment and funding. At that conference, the Defence Secretary announced that the UK would establish an international fund for Ukraine to ensure the continued supply of essential military support throughout 2023. Last week, partner nations met again to reaffirm our commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, and to maintaining momentum on planning and co-ordinating our continued support to Ukraine throughout the next year.

    In addition, the Prime Minister, speaking at the UN General Assembly, has pledged that this Government will match or exceed the £2.3 billion of support that the UK has given to Ukraine since February. This further cements our leadership internationally and our resolve to stand behind Ukraine as it retakes sovereign territory currently occupied by the Russians.

    It is vital that we maintain our momentum in support of Ukraine. There will inevitably be those who, given the rising impacts of Putin’s weaponisation of energy, argue that we should seek to normalise relations with the Kremlin on Putin’s terms and return everything to the way it was, but we must be honest with the public. We cannot succumb to Putin’s scaremongering and threats of blackmail. This Government are doing everything they can do address the energy crisis, and on Wednesday my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary brought forward an unprecedented package of measures to address those issues.

    Dr Liam Fox (North Somerset) (Con)

    Will my right hon. Friend make it very clear that however this war ends, Putin and his henchmen who are responsible for it can never escape from the sanctions imposed on them personally, and those responsible for war crimes will be held accountable for their actions?

    James Heappey

    On the last point, I can certainly confirm to my right hon. Friend that there is every intention to make sure that people are held fully to account for the outrages that they committed or that were committed in their name. On his former point about the ongoing imposition of sanctions against those who were involved, I know that colleagues from the Foreign Office and the Treasury will be keen to make sure that that is absolutely the case.

    What we cannot do is turn back the clock. The consequences of appeasing Putin would be catastrophic not just for Ukraine, but for security in the Euratlantic as a whole. Russia would continue to threaten the prosperity of the UK and its allies, and indeed the entire rules-based international system.

    We should not assume that Putin’s ambitions would stop at Ukraine. If we fail to maintain western resolve, Putin could seek to expand his ambitions beyond Ukraine and into NATO territory in the Baltics or against our other partners. An emboldened Russia would also mean an emboldened President Xi in China. In other words, relaxing our resolve would make the next 20 years on our planet far more uncomfortable, dangerous and expensive.

    It is therefore to the enormous credit of the British public that in the face of significant personal financial challenge, they continue to overwhelmingly support the Ukrainian war effort. Their support sends a more powerful message to Putin than anything I, or any other Minister, could say from the Dispatch Box. Let us make no mistake: His Majesty’s Government will not falter and Putin’s latest pronouncements will not change our course. We will continue to stand up for and with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will continue to provide the Ukrainian people with all the support they need to rid their land of the Russian occupiers.

  • Jeremy Hunt – 2022 Comments on Health and Social Care

    Jeremy Hunt – 2022 Comments on Health and Social Care

    The comments made by Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative MP for South West Surrey and the former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

    I welcome the Secretary of State to her new role. As I know, it is the hardest job in Government, but she has a zen-like calmness which means that she is well suited to dealing with the pressures that lie ahead.

    There is much to be welcomed today, particularly the pension rule changes, the additional funds for social care and the new powers for pharmacists, but may I ask the Secretary of State to rethink the new two-week access target for general practice? If targets were the answer, we would have the best access in the world in the NHS, because we have more targets than any other healthcare system in the world. GPs alone have 72 targets, and adding a 73rd will not help them or their patients, because it is not more targets but more doctors that the NHS needs. Will the workforce plan to which the Secretary of State recommitted herself—I welcome her commitment to publishing it—include hard numbers, so we can know how many doctors we will need in 10, 15 and 20 years’ time and whether we are actually training them, and will she publish it before Christmas so that staff can at least go into the winter knowing that there is a plan for the future?

  • Wes Streeting – 2022 Speech on Health and Social Care

    Wes Streeting – 2022 Speech on Health and Social Care

    The speech made by Wes Streeting, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

    I welcome the Secretary of State and her team to their new posts. I thank her for advance sight of her statement, but if any evidence were needed of a Government and party out of ideas, out of time and without a clue about the scale of the challenge that our country faces, the statement would be it.

    The NHS is facing the worst crisis it has ever seen, with patients waiting longer than ever before in A&E, stroke and heart attack victims waiting an hour for an ambulance, and 378,000 patients waiting more than a year for an operation—and that was in the summer. We have gone from an NHS that treated patients well and on time when Labour was in office 12 years ago to an annual winter crisis, and now a year-round crisis under the Conservatives. But don’t worry: the Health Secretary has a grip on the key issues. She does not have an answer on the workforce, but she has sorted out the Oxford comma. I am sure that the whole country is breathing a sigh of relief about that.

    The Health Secretary promised a digital revolution in the NHS. Well, Conservative Health Secretaries have promised a digital revolution 17 times since 2010. [Interruption.] Oh, apparently she did not say that—she is not promising a digital revolution. That is good news, because I do not think that the staff who are slogging their guts out in the most difficult conditions in history will be particularly impressed by the introduction of that cutting-edge modern technology, the telephone. The NHS can finally axe the carrier pigeon and step into the 20th century. I am sure that staff are absolutely delighted.

    Madam Deputy Speaker,

    “these measures will not come close to ensuring patients who need to be seen can be seen within the timescales set out…they will have minimal impact on fixing the current problems that general practice is facing over the winter”.

    Those are not my words; they are the NHS Confederation’s verdict on the Secretary of State’s plans. Are they not the truth? The Secretary of State says that patients will be able to get a GP appointment within two weeks, but her party scrapped the guarantee of an appointment within two days that Labour introduced when we were in government. She made it clear this morning that it is not a guarantee at all, but merely an expectation—and what is the consequence if GPs do not meet her expectation? As we heard on the radio this morning, her message to patients is “Get on your bike and find a new GP.” Are patients supposed to be grateful for that?

    Who will deliver the appointments that the Secretary of State is promising: the 6,000 GPs her party promised at the last election but will not deliver, or the 4,700 GPs her party has cut over the past decade? Where will these GP appointments take place? Certainly not in the 330 practices that have closed since the last general election alone. The Conservatives promising to fix the crisis in the NHS is like the arsonists promising to put out the fire that they started.

    As if that were not bad enough, the super-massive black hole at the heart of the Secretary of State’s plan is the lack of a workforce strategy. She has no plan to provide the doctors that our NHS so desperately needs. Despite her “Sesame Street” approach to politics, in her A, B, C, D plan—by the way, last time I checked, S was for social care—she has missed the N for nurses. I say to the Secretary of State that without a plan to tackle the staffing crisis, she does not have a plan for the NHS. What is she going to do about the staff shortage of 132,000 in the NHS today?

    The Secretary of State talks about £500 million to speed up delayed discharges. Is that a new investment or a re-announcement? She is right to say that if patients cannot get out the back door of hospital because care is not there in the community, we get more patients at the front door and more ambulances queuing out at the front. That is exactly where we are under the Conservatives today. But she misses the crucial point: unless the Government act on care workers’ pay and conditions, employers will not be able to recruit and retain the staff they need. What is her plan to address that?

    Patients will have been concerned to read reports that after the Conservatives failed to hit the four-hour A&E waiting time target for seven years, the Health Secretary is planning to scrap it altogether. I notice that she was not brave enough to say that today; I hope that she will not do so. Can she reassure the House and patients across the country that her response to the crisis in the NHS will be not to lower standards for patients, but to raise performance instead?

    The Secretary of State is the third Health Secretary in less than three months. The faces change but the story remains the same. There is still no plan that comes close to meeting the scale of the challenge—no plan for staffing and no real plan for the NHS. It is clear that the longer the Conservatives are in power, the longer patients will wait. As Dr. Dre might say: time for the next episode.

  • Therese Coffey – 2022 Statement on Health and Social Care

    Therese Coffey – 2022 Statement on Health and Social Care

    The statement made by Therese Coffey, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the House of Commons on 22 September 2022.

    I am pleased today to set out to Parliament our plan for patients. As the Prime Minister said on the doorstep of Downing Street, she had three clear priorities: growing the economy; tackling energy security and support for households and businesses; and the NHS, with patients being able to get a GP appointment.

    Patients are my top priority and I will be their champion, focusing on the issues that most affect them or their loved ones. Most of the time, patients have a great experience, but we must not paper over the problems that we face. We expect backlogs to rise before they fall as more patients come forward for diagnosis and treatment after the pandemic, and the data shows, sadly, that there is too much variation in the access and care that people receive across the country.

    The scale of the challenge necessitates a national endeavour. As we work together to tackle these immense challenges, I will be proactive, not prescriptive, in our approach as we apply a relentless focus on measures that affect most people’s experience of the NHS and social care.

    Today, we are taking the first step in this important journey by publishing “Our Plan for Patients”, which I will lay in the Libraries of both Houses. It sets out a range of measures to help the NHS and social care perform at their best for patients. The plan will inform patients and empower them to live healthier lives; place an intensive focus on primary care, the gateway to the NHS for most people; use prevention to strengthen resilience and the health of the nation; and improve performance and productivity.

    To succeed, we will need a true national endeavour, supported by our making it easier for clinical professionals to return to help the NHS, as well as drawing on the energy and enthusiasm of the million people who volunteered to help during the pandemic by opening up opportunities for them to help in different ways. That could be by becoming a community first responder, or by, for example, strengthening good neighbour schemes across the country. We will also explore the creation of an ambulance auxiliary service.

    The plan sets out our work on the ABCD of priorities that affect most people’s experience of the NHS and social care. First, on ambulances, I want to reduce waiting times for patients and apply a laser-like focus on handover delays, so that ambulances get back on the road and to patients, where they are needed most.

    Our analysis shows that 45% of the delays are occurring in just 15 hospital trusts. That is why the local NHS will be doing intensive work with those trusts to create more capacity in hospitals—the equivalent of 7,000 more beds—by this winter through a combination of freeing up beds, with a focus on discharge, and people staying at home and being monitored remotely through the sort of technology that played such an important role during the pandemic. In addition, when patients call 999, the speed of answering is critical, so we will increase the number of call handlers for both 999 and 111 calls.

    Next is the backlog, where the waiting list for planned care currently stands at about 7 million, exacerbated by the pandemic. This summer, we announced that we have virtually eliminated waits of over two years, and we remain on track to reach the next milestones in our plan. To boost capacity, we are accelerating our plans to roll out community diagnostic centres as well as new hospitals, and we will maximise the use of the independent sector to provide even more treatment for patients.

    As well as capacity, we are also getting more people on the frontline, making it easier for people to work in and help the NHS. We know that people are leaving the workforce for a variety of reasons. We have listened, and we are responding and addressing a number of those reasons. For instance, pension rules can currently be a disincentive for clinicians who want to stay in the profession or to return from retirement and help our national endeavour. We will correct pension rules relating to inflation; we will expect NHS trusts to offer pension recycling; and we will extend until 2024 measures that will allow people to stay or return to the NHS.

    I can announce today that we will extend the operation of the emergency registers for health professionals for two more years. That is, of course, on top of commitments to boost the health and care workforce, such as our manifesto pledge to recruit 50,000 more nurses by 2024. That will sit alongside the design and delivery of our forthcoming workforce plan.

    C is for social care. At the moment, one of the key challenges is discharging patients from hospital into more appropriate care settings to free up beds and help improve ambulance response times. To tackle that, I can announce today that we are launching a £500 million adult social care discharge fund for this winter. The local NHS will be working with councils with targeted plans on specific care packages to support people being either in their own home or in the wider community. That £500 million acts as the down-payment in the rebalancing of funding across health and social care as we develop our longer-term plans.

    I know that there is a shortage of carers across the country. We will continue to work with the Department for Work and Pensions on a national recruitment campaign. In addition, since last winter, we have opened up international recruitment routes for carers. We will support the sector with £15 million this year to help to employ more care workers from abroad. We are also accelerating the roll-out of technologies such as digitised social care records, which can save care workers about 20 minutes a shift, freeing up time for carers to care.

    Finally, D is for doctors and dentists. I am determined to address one of the most frustrating problems faced by many patients: getting an appointment to see their doctor, or getting to see a dentist at all.

    Starting with doctors, we are taking five steps to help make that happen: first, setting the expectation that everyone who needs a GP appointment can get one within two weeks; secondly, opening up time for more than 1 million extra appointments, so that patients with urgent needs can be seen on the same day; thirdly, making it easier to book an appointment; fourthly, publishing performance by practice to help to inform patients; and fifthly, requiring the local NHS to hold practices to account, providing support to those practices with the most acute access challenges to improve performance.

    Clearly, clinicians are best placed to prioritise according to the clinical need of their patients. In July, 44% of appointments were same-day appointments, but too few practices were consistently offering appointments within a fortnight.

    To help free up appointments, we will ease pressures on GP practices by expanding the role of community pharmacies. I am pleased to announce that we have agreed a deal for an expanded offer over the next 18 months. Pharmacists will be able to prescribe certain medications rather than requiring a GP prescription. As well as other measures involving community pharmacists, we estimate that that will free up 2 million appointments. We are also changing funding rules to give freedoms to GPs to boost the number of staff to support their practice. We estimate that that measure could free up 1 million GP appointments.

    For patients, we will make it easier for them to contact their practice, both on the phone—we are making an extra 31,000 phone lines available this winter, followed by further deployment of cloud-based telephony—and online, particularly through the NHS app. As I set out, we will also correct pension rules so that our most experienced GPs can stay in practice. By extending the emergency register, we are creating opportunities for people other than GPs to undertake tasks such as vaccinations.

    On dentists, there are too many dental deserts. That is why we are setting out an ambition that everyone seeking NHS dental care can receive it when they need it. We have already started changing the dental contract to incentivise dentists to do more NHS work and take on more difficult cases. I pay tribute to my predecessors in this role for their success in beginning to tackle this long-standing issue.

    We will also streamline routes into NHS dentistry for those trained overseas so that they can start treating patients more quickly. We will make it a contractual requirement for dentists to publish online whether they are taking on new NHS patients.

    These measures, across a number of important areas, are the start, not the end, of our ambitions for health and care. They will help us to manage the pressure that health and care will face this winter and next, and they will improve these vital services for the long term. My priorities are patients’ priorities, and I will endeavour, through a powerful partnership with the NHS and local authorities, to level up care and match the expectations that the public rightly have. Whether you live in a city or a town, in the countryside or on the coast, this Government will be on your side when you need care the most. I commend this statement to the House.