Violence in Israel and Palestine

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

As I have said, the UK’s position on settlements and evictions is of long standing. We have communicated that both from the Dispatch Box and directly with our interlocutors in the Israeli Government, but ultimately our priority at the moment is to do everything we can, both bilaterally and through multilateral institutions, to bring about an end to this conflict so that the terrible and distressing images that the hon. Member and others in this Chamber have spoken about come to an end, and then we can work on a long-term, sustainable, peaceful solution for the region.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con) [V]]

If my right hon. Friend examines his statements today and compares them with those made by the Foreign Office 25 years ago in respect of illegal settlements at Har Homa, he will find a remarkable similarity. What has changed is the end of any hope for the Oslo peace process, built out of existence by illegal settlements, and the dominance of factions in both communities of those least committed to justice, security and reconciliation between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. When will the United Kingdom work to achieve real accountability for those breaching international and humanitarian law, including those indiscriminately mortaring the innocent, the disproportionate response by the occupiers to violence by the occupied, and decades of the violation of the fourth Geneva convention that has made a practical mockery of the British policy commitment to a two-state solution?

[James Cleverly]

As I have said, the UK’s position on settlements is of long standing, it is clear and has been communicated here and elsewhere. There is no justification for the violence that we are seeing coming out of Gaza and the targeting of civilians. As I have said, Israel absolutely has the right to defend itself. We call on it to act with caution and care in discharging that defence, but ultimately, we are seeking to bring about a speedy conclusion to the current violence that we are seeing, and then we will continue to work—I appreciate that my hon. Friend said that this has been a long-standing aim, and it has been a long-standing aim of this and other Governments—to bring about a peaceful two-state solution so that we have a sustainable, peaceful resolution in this region.

Commonwealth Day 2021

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Tuesday 16th March 2021 Westminster Hall

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con) [V]]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Paisley. It is also a pleasure to follow the opening speech in this debate by my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger), who is proving to be an excellent chair of the CPA. I well remember the last time I attended a CPA conference in 2014, with him and other colleagues, in Cameroon. I had come from a visit to Kenya, which, given the health issues in Africa at the time, with the Ebola virus, ended up as a single-handed visit, but I was able to use the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and its offices and get support from the British high commissions in both Kenya and Cameroon to advance the values, objectives and soft engagement—the connections and everything else—that the Commonwealth brings to us. It is an institution of enormous value in that soft sense, but it can also have a slightly harder edge.

We ought to note that the Commonwealth appeared in the conflict, stability and security fund for the period between 2018 and 2020. There was a fairness programme, aimed at Commonwealth nations, that focused on supporting universal access to justice; effective, accountable and inclusive legal institutions; democratic participation and inclusive decision making; transparent Government and trade; fundamental freedoms and non-discriminatory laws and policies; and promoting greater civil engagement among young people and disadvantaged groups.

The advancement of those values, and of institutions on those lines, is hugely important for the future of developing nations, because once they get those things right, international investors can take advantage of the labour price advantage of those countries, if they see it, knowing that their investments will be secure in those nations and that they will not be subject to the terrible economic price that can be paid through corruption in the governmental and political process. The way would be open to enable those countries to move rapidly towards greater economic equality with us. That is a huge security interest to the United Kingdom, and it would begin to address the issues raised by the hon. Member for Streatham (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) about immigration pressures on the United Kingdom.

Fairness and equality are a central economic interest, and the values and policies to secure that can be advanced by the institutions of the Commonwealth quietly coming together and engaging us, parliamentarian to parliamentarian, civil service to civil service, as well as through the excellent Clerks’ programme about the management of Parliament that the chair of the CPA promoted.

I will now focus on the announcement we will get today from the Prime Minister on the integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy. To a degree, that is the conflict, stability and security fund writ large as our policy. By bringing together elements of expenditure around goals, values and the promotion of institutions that deliver security as well as the harder edge of security for the United Kingdom, there will be many advantages, and that will hopefully be a significantly better way of managing the security challenge that is inevitably linked to values.

On values, I chair the all-party parliamentary group on global LGBT+ rights, and I am delighted that we have had a really good take-up for our parliamentary liaison scheme, which will use the informal links we have as a nation and as parliamentarians—the hon. Member for Streatham, with her Ghanaian heritage, made that clear—to find individuals to help institutions in those nations representing LGBT groups who have been criminalised and oppressed. It will quietly make links with those parliamentarians to keep an eye on the British high commission and embassies to ensure that we are standing up for the values that we profess as a nation and actually deliver them in practice. The Commonwealth is a fantastic vehicle for doing that. As I said, it is a delight to take part in the debate.

Xinjiang: Forced Labour

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I thank the hon. Gentleman, who is also a friend, for consistently raising these issues in a very targeted way. We are deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Tibet, including restrictions on freedom of religion, freedom of religious belief, and freedom of assembly, and also about the reports of forced labour. The evidence is not quite as well documented as it is in relation to Xinjiang, but we will, of course, keep those measures under review. Indeed, the transparency requirements under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will apply across the board, not just in relation to Xinjiang.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con) [V]]

I am not sure that I was listening to the same statement as the shadow Foreign Secretary. I thought that, as a statement about our values, it was extremely clear. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that it is plainly morally unacceptable for British firms to profit from forced labour? We should also bear it in mind that there are now 1 million people extra-judicially interned in Xinjiang. Will he also confirm the implications of what he said about torture? Torture is a crime of universal jurisdiction, so perhaps he could tell us what the implications are for Chinese officials now engaged in that.

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend for his support for the measures we are taking. He is right about them. I share his concern in relation to Xinjiang and also, specifically, torture. Torture is an international crime, and anyone who engages in it, directs it or even takes an order in relation to it will be guilty under international law. The real challenge with China, as we know, is how to get remedy—redress—for these actions. The measures that we have announced today will prevent any profiting from forced labour, or indeed torture, and also prevent any UK businesses from financially, whether inadvertently or otherwise, supporting it.

If we want more significant accountability, the answer is to get an authoritative third-party body that is to review such matters—as, with the greatest respect to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), we have managed to secure in relation to World Health Organisation access to China this week. We have to keep pressing, with our international partners. That is why the group of international partners that is assembled is very important. It must be as broad as possible in order to secure access for the UN Human Rights Commissioner.

Official Development Assistance

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I join the right hon. Gentleman in paying tribute to the Churches. Maybe they have a power of foresight that has been lost on humble politicians, but all I would say is that even at the point at which we did the merger, I do not think anyone could have foreseen the depth of the financial implications. As a former Treasury Minister, I think he would understand this; he has been through the process. The analysis was not there and the structural hit—not just for one year—to the public finances was not clear at that time. It is clear now. We have had to take a difficult decision. I have to say to him, as a former Minister, that these are decisions that, typically, Conservative Governments front up and, on the Labour side, they abdicate.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con) [V]]

I welcome the opportunities that an integrated budget provides. I also welcome the Foreign Secretary’s focus on defending open societies. After the Prime Minister’s affirmative reply to my letters to the Foreign Secretary of 4 September and 12 October about securing global Britain’s leadership on LGBT+ rights, will the Foreign Secretary undertake to instruct officials to engage with the United Kingdom Alliance for Global Equality and any other relevant organisations to help to formulate the programmes of work that could be delivered and announced by the Prime Minister or him when the United Kingdom hosts the global Equal Rights Coalition conference next year?

[Dominic Raab]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has championed this cause relentlessly and with great passion and great eloquence. We are a global leader in this and we should be proud of it—I am proud of it. We are proud to be the Equal Rights Coalition co-chair with Argentina, and we are ambitious about what we can achieve through that strategy and the impact it will have. He talked about NGOs. Civil society has an incredibly important role to play, and we are committed to working with all the NGOs, including the United Kingdom Alliance for Global Equality, in the weeks and months ahead.

Oral Answers to Questions

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I can tell the House that I had two conversations throughout August with Foreign Minister Zarif. We pursue all the cases of our dual nationals. The question of the International Military Services debt is a parallel issue, but we have always said that we would work to resolve that. As well as all the wider issues that have already been raised in relation to Iran, there is never an engagement, a meeting or a telephone conversation that goes by without our being absolutely clear—and I hope that the hon. Lady agrees—on the appalling and arbitrary detention of all dual nationals and calling for their immediate release.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

With my right hon. Friend’s much enhanced departmental responsibilities, together with Britain’s current chairmanship of the 42-nation Equal Rights Coalition, he has an unprecedented opportunity to reinforce Britain’s claim to leadership in advancing the freedom of all LGBT+ people around the world to be themselves. Britain also has a special responsibility to address the unhappy legacy of the laws and the culture bequeathed by imperial Britain. What measures is he considering for global Britain to take this opportunity as well as to help to address the legacy of imperial Britain?

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend and hugely welcome all his efforts in this regard. We are taking forward all these strands—from media freedom to the Magnitsky sanctions, to the work that we are doing on LGBT rights. He will know that we intend to build on our current official development assistance allocation for the strategic review on LGBT rights, which will be completed in the autumn. As a founding member of the Equal Rights Coalition of 42 states sharing the same values, in 2019 we took on the role of co-chair and we plan not only to deliver the first ever UK-led five-year action plan, committing the coalition to taking domestic and international measures on LGBT and equality issues, but to expand the ERC and, in particular, to try to draw in more participation from Asia, Latin America and Africa, for all the reasons that he mentioned.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The example that the hon. Gentleman cites is an historic one. We will make sure that it cannot be repeated or replicated in future.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con) [V]]

Almost no amount of material wealth could now compensate me if I was to lose the freedom to be myself that I finally exercised almost exactly 10 years ago. We pride ourselves on being global leaders in supporting LGBT+ people around the world to enable them to exercise that freedom. Will the Secretary of State confirm that his new combined Department will now not only sustain but increase the resources available for Britain to continue to lead the world in addressing the impoverishment of the soul that comes from not being free to be oneself?

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend and pay tribute to him for his courage and his conviction. He is absolutely right. Indeed, before the merger—but I think reinforced by it—we were making sure that the freedom agenda was at the core of our “force for good” priorities. I think he can see that in the media freedom campaign that we are co-partnering with our Canadian friends, right the way through to the Magnitsky sanctions that I recently introduced, which we are currently working on in tandem with the EU sanctions that are being considered in relation, for example, to the violation of human rights in Belarus.

Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I thank the hon. Gentleman and also pay tribute to him. These measures would not have come about without the tenacity and advocacy he has consistently put into this area over many years and on a cross-party basis. As I said, this is a first step, and we will consider how we can proceed, but I make no apology for wanting to make the first step a sure-footed one. Just for clarity, the most serious human rights abuses that we have chosen often are used precisely to suppress peaceful protest or freedom of speech. Magnitsky himself was a whistleblower who was tortured for blowing the lid on the biggest tax fraud that we know of in Russian history. I take the hon. Gentleman’s wider points. We will look to progress, develop, fine-tune and enhance this regime as we proceed.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his excellent statement, which adds serious substance to underpin the values, particularly in respect of human rights, that global Britain will champion around the world. Does Ramzan Kadyrov appear on this list? Has my right hon. Friend seen “Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge”? If he has not, I commend it to him. I also commend the incredible courage of the people who documented what happened in Chechnya’s gay purge, so that formal legal action can begin at some point, whether in the European Court of Human Rights or elsewhere. Clearly, there is a case for sanctions on Ramzan Kadyrov, and on President Putin, who gives Kadyrov impunity for his actions. This is a jurisdiction that does not criminalise homosexuality, but there are 72 around the world that do, including 34 in the Commonwealth. I sincerely hope that this issue will be a leading part of the work carried out on human rights.

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend, who will be able to see the list and check individual names for himself. There are 25 individuals under the Magnitsky designation, 20 under the Khashoggi one, and two under Myanmar, and two organisations in relation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. As I said, in the interest of maximum transparency, they will be published. I take his point and commend him for the full-hearted and full-throated way he has championed human rights in this House.

Middle East Peace Plan

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Murrison]

I think the hon. Lady needs to be a little careful with her language, if I may say so. If I may quote the EU High Representative—this is important, particularly in the context of the hon. Lady’s party and our incipient departure from the European Union—he said:

“Today’s initiative by the United States provides an occasion to re-launch the urgently needed efforts towards a negotiated and viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”

He is welcoming this—[Interruption.] Yes, he is. I could read out any number of comments made along those lines by international leaders over the past 48 hours. The important thing is that this may be the start of a process after a very long period of stand-off between Palestinians and Israelis. If that proves to be the case, I would welcome it.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

I join the Minister in heartily congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat) on his thumping victory on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I thank both him and my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely) for the way in which the contest was conducted.

My right hon. Friend might want to remember what our manifesto said. It said that Britain would be

a champion of…the rule of law, human rights, free trade, anti-corruption efforts and a rules-based international system.”

Yesterday we welcomed the release of a proposal—which we described as serious—that ignored the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, the 1967 borders, international humanitarian law, and repeated United Nations Security Council resolutions, the last of which the United Kingdom signed up to in December 2016. I have to say to my right hon. Friend that this is an annexation plan. Annexation is going to start on 2 February—and there is the map.

[Dr Murrison]

I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks. Of course we welcomed the release of this plan, which has been worked out over several years. That is not to say in any way that we endorse its contents. Let me emphasise that our position, stated in our manifesto and elsewhere, has not changed. Indeed, that position has been reflected among most of our friends and allies in the region and elsewhere. According to President Macron,

“France welcomes President Trump’s efforts and will carefully study the peace plan”.

That is exactly where we stand on this matter, and that is not endorsement.

UK Telecommunications

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I am not quite sure what the hon. Gentleman’s question was, but we are taking the right decision based on a whole range of technical, commercial and security considerations for this country. Of course we will need to go out and explain our position to all our different partners, but I think that, particularly as we are leaving the EU, it is right that the United Kingdom does the right thing for the people of this country, that we do it in the right way and that we have enough self-belief and the courage of our convictions to stand up and take those decisions. That is what this Government are doing today.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

May I commend the serious and sober tone in which the Foreign Secretary has approached this issue? I also commend the enormous amount of work that must have been done by the intelligence agencies to re-examine what I understood was the preliminary position arrived at under the Government of my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May). It ought to give us comfort that this decision has been properly examined, but the only body in this House that can properly look at this on the basis of all the evidence is the Intelligence and Security Committee. If that Committee, when it is formed, seeks to examine this decision, may I request my right hon. Friend and the Government to allow it to look at it, within all the restrictions that apply? Finally, in relation to the markets of China, will my right hon. Friend make it clear to the Chinese that we expect reciprocity?

[Dominic Raab]

I am not quite sure which Select Committee my hon. Friend is going for now, but in any event, I can reassure the House that full scrutiny among all Select Committees will be duly provided. He makes some important points about the nature of our relationship with China and the importance of it engaging in good faith when it has access to our market, even though we are rightly taking the measures that I have described to protect any vulnerabilities. He makes an important point about the bilateral relationship with China.

Iran

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Monday 13th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

We make it clear in international forums—we have done so in the UN, for example—that we support the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression in Iran. My right hon. Friend will know of the already febrile state in Tehran, which would point to interference in domestic affairs and attempts to usurp the regime. We track a careful balance between standing up for the norms, values and human rights that he and I share, and ensuring that we do not play into the hands of the hardliners. Ultimately, we want Tehran to make the choice to take responsibility for its actions, and we have seen at least a semblance of that with its acknowledgment that it was responsible for the downing of the airliner. We then want the country to take it a step further by reversing the path towards political and economic isolation, and that will only happen if Iran comes back to the negotiating table through the diplomatic channel.

[Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

May I commend what the Secretary of State said about Sultan Qaboos, and indeed what my hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat)—the other former Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee—said about the potential role of Oman in the future? During this crisis, it was the Iranian Supreme Leader who talked about the corrupting influence of American troops stationed in the region, but what has been revealed over the past few days is the corrupting influence of the IRG on Iran itself. It is holding in place a regime that is frankly illegitimate, as we have seen through the eyes of the demonstrators on the streets against it. Will we continue to de-escalate the violence, and to escalate the competition of values in which most Iranian people are on our side?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We can see the anger in Tehran and more generally about this state of affairs, which is why the transparency in relation to the downing of the airliner is so important—not just for the British individuals who lost their lives or the wider international victims, but also for the people of Iran, who were the biggest victims when that airliner went down. We need to ensure that there is transparency and answers to questions for all the reasons that my hon. Friend outlined.