India: Freedom of Religion or Belief

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

We have an excellent dialogue with the Indian Government in all sorts of ways. In fact, I spoke to Foreign Minister Jaishankar at the weekend. My noble friend Lord Ahmad visits frequently and has a very deep dialogue. I have a good relationship with Prime Minister Modi, and we discuss all these things.

In terms of meeting the sustainable development goals, the most important thing India can do is to continue to grow and lift people out of poverty. I think it is true that there are more people in India below the poverty line than in sub-Saharan Africa. The need for India to grow and pull people out of poverty is great. Obviously, one thing we will discuss at the G20 and elsewhere is how to scale up the multilateral development banks, in which India has a voice, to make sure that we have the financing available to meet those development goals.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, the democratic elections in India are a positive for the whole world and are to be commended to the Indian authorities. But all too often there has been harassment and intimidation by the Indian Government when there has been reporting of human rights concerns, as well as freedom of religion concerns, including the necessity for the BBC uniquely to restructure in India so that it is no longer operating there like it operates in any other country. Will the Foreign Secretary confirm that we are not offering market access to India for media, data and telecoms on an unequal basis? The freedoms that we should enjoy in this country when it comes to the BBC and open media to report human rights concerns should exist in India also. We should not give preferential market access here when we are not offered it there.

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

The noble Lord makes a very good point about the rumbustious nature of Indian democracy. India should be proud of being the biggest democracy in the world. As with all democracies, there are imperfections—as there are in our own country. We should celebrate the scale of India’s democracy.

The point the noble Lord makes about the BBC is important. My understanding is that India passed a law insisting that digital media companies had to be Indian-owned, and the BBC has had to restructure on that basis. That is not the British way—insisting that all media have to be domestically owned—although I know that some in this place and elsewhere have been tempted by those moves; I have sometimes fantasised about that when reading things that I have read. None the less, that is the reason why the BBC has restructured, together with some disagreements with India.

I will take away and look at the point that the noble Lord then made about the trade deal. My understanding of where we are with the trade deal is that good market access has been offered on both sides, but not quite enough yet to secure a deal. It is important with such trade deals, as you only really get one proper shot at it, to make sure that it is a good enough deal that will be welcomed by industry leaders here in the UK as offering real market access. On the point on media access, I will have to go away and look at that. Personally, I would say that we should open up media access on both sides to make sure we have a good plurality of media.

Christians: Persecution

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 25th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I also commend the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, for bringing this debate, with particularly good timing, as she noted, given the religious holiday that is coming up. For billions of people on the planet, this will be a time to celebrate their faith, family and community, but, regrettably, as has been pointed out during this sober debate, with many dreadful statistics of the scale of the issue, too many Christians will not be able to do so in security and will be fearful of persecution.

I commend the Minister for his work on freedom of religion or belief. As he points out regularly in the Chamber, that freedom is also for those without religion or who do not practise belief. He regularly responds with sincerity and passion about the need for people to practise their own private faith, free from state persecution. I commend the FCDO for the work it has done over recent years—not only the global conferences and the convening power of UK diplomats, but also the training of our own staff to be able to identify those areas where there is likely to be persecution and the growth of extremism, because this is also an issue of security and prevention of conflict. At home, also, in recent months, we have had to debate the wholly unacceptable rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia; they have no place in modern Britain. They have never had a place in Britain.

My party’s constitution starts with the words:

“we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity”.

As with others in the Chamber during this debate, when we have seen persecution in China, with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Falun Gong at risk of persecution, or in Algeria with Christian groups and the Ahmadiyya Muslim community reporting difficulties, or in the Gulf, in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia, we reject the persecution and call them out. More recently, questions in this Chamber have related to concerns that exist within India and Afghanistan, where concerns about Christians, Sikhs and Hazaras have been raised.

Regrettably, the list is too long, because we have also discussed today, at length, the situations in Nigeria and in Eritrea; concerns about the growth of terrorist groups such as Boko Haram—which even has in the words of its title the forbidding of education, which is deeply chilling—and Islamic State in west Africa, which has had at its very heart the persecution of minorities; and the concerns about the impact on the Pentecostal Church and Shia Islam.

I recognise that many sovereign states have established religions. As was pointed out, the UK is no different—the world watched our Head of State being crowned in a religious ceremony, not a civil one. England, not a nation in the UK where I live, has an established Church, which has legislators among its members—we were graced with a contribution today.

There is long-standing anxiety about political Islam, and many communities over centuries have been worried about political Christianity too. We in this country need to have a degree of self-awareness that established Churches have all too often been used by repressive or reactionary political leaders to deny rights rather than to give them. The Minister and his colleagues have done excellent work in the sensitive area of working with countries—some friendly—that still retain apostasy laws, for example, and have denied rights to women and children in the name of religion, often incredibly inaccurately so, as the Minister pointed out.

When I campaigned against the death penalty in Uganda, I was told by the Anglican community there that it would support my work on the condition that I did not campaign for LGBT rights. The Anglican community in the Commonwealth is not a homogenous one. It is worth noting that too many of the examples that we have heard in this debate, and too many of the watch countries highlighted by NGOs and the FCDO, are Commonwealth nations. In too many, progressive reforms can be all too problematic.

In recent weeks and months, we have seen religious political leaders using the faith of their own followers as a political tool, such as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Carnegie Endowment said:

“When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) did not hesitate to throw its support behind the Kremlin’s war against a neighboring Orthodox nation. Far from wavering, that support has only grown more strident as the war progressed”.


The Anglican leader in Rwanda speaks out in favour of the UK immigration agreement, and Anglican leaders in this House speak against it. There is, of course, an element of healthy debate, which needs to be encouraged, but, perhaps now more than for many years, as the noble Lord, Lord Curry, indicated, political leaders are using belief in God as a defence and a motive for repressive actions. It is striking that most who do this are the least godly of all. It gives licence to groups to persecute minorities and for there to be impunity for it.

Of course, it is not new—it is centuries, if not millennia, old—and in some areas we struggle to reconcile the contemporary consequences of such past actions. The racist undertones of British imperial expansion reflected the “three Cs” of colonialism: civilisation, Christianity and commerce. Coming to terms with this is hard; England’s established Church recently rejected its oversight body’s finding that contributing less than 1% over 10 years of its endowment funds which were originally based on the proceeds of exploiting enslaved people was too little over too long a timeframe.

None of this historical reflection, or indeed how contemporary political leaders are abusing faith for political and corrupt ends, can defend or excuse the persecution of Christian people seeking to practise their own faith. I support their ability to do that unflinchingly.

Given the Private Member’s Bill to establish a statutory envoy, can the Minister assure the House that there will be enough time in both Houses to see this on to the statute book? Are the Government seeking amendments to widen its scope and capacity?

I close by reflecting on one point. The noble Baroness indicated that the persecution of Christians is far too underreported, and no doubt she is absolutely right, but given the context of the Middle East and what is happening in Gaza and Israel, this is a personal comment from my friend, Layla Moran, whose mother is a Christian Arab from Jerusalem and who has family members seeking shelter in the Holy Family Church in Gaza. She said:

“I am on the side of basic humanity … I am on the side of the Israeli community, the Palestinian community and the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities”.—[Official Report, Commons, 25/10/23; col. 913.]


Protecting people’s ability to practise their faith should be an element of basic humanity.

Hong Kong Security Legislation

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, in spite of what the Minister says about the UK saying that there is an ongoing breach, the first time a Minister of His Majesty’s Government visited Hong Kong, it was the Investment Minister, Lord Johnson. He did not raise Jimmy Lai with Hong Kong or Chinese officials; he did not raise human rights with officials; he did not raise the sanctioning of democracies; and he did not meet democracy campaigners in Hong Kong. The Minister made only one media comment saying that the British Government were concerned about human rights. In his comments today, the Foreign Secretary said that he was concerned that this would impact on investment. Is the UK so dependent on Chinese imports of goods and Hong Kong investment that we will not act when it comes to enforcement on what we believe should be human rights breaches? Why do Ministers visit Hong Kong but not raise these issues with Chinese officials?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

As the noble Lord mentioned, on the visit of the last Minister, he did, according to our records, raise the issue of human rights. That is a consistent policy; I, as the Minister for human rights, ensure that they are included in briefings, wherever they are and with whatever Minister.

I do not agree with the noble Lord, Lord Purvis: as I demonstrated in my response to the noble Lord, Lord Collins, we have consistently raised the issue of Jimmy Lai specifically. On the issue of not acting, we have. When it comes to broader issues around human rights—for example, the noble Lord will be aware of Xinjiang—the United Kingdom has been instrumental and has led action at both the UN Human Rights Council and the UN in New York.

Israel and Gaza

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure I speak for everyone in your Lordships’ House when I say that, following the 7 October attacks, we were all shocked and appalled by the allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in those attacks. Like many other countries—the US, Germany, Italy, Finland, Switzerland and the Netherlands—we suspended funding. However, the noble Lord is right to raise the importance of the reports. We have spoken repeatedly—as has my noble friend—about the important role that UNRWA has played in providing aid and services. We have continued our support through other agencies, and the Foreign Secretary and I have been advocating very strongly for the opening up of new land access points to Gaza, which is showing progress. For example, we saw 185 trucks get through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

On the two reports, I can assure the noble Lord that the UK is fully engaged, primarily through our excellent ambassador at the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward. There is a briefing for UN Security Council Permanent Representatives on the interim findings of Catherine Colonna’s report at 8.30 New York time today. We are following this very closely, but there are important measures and mitigations that need to be put in place. While we recognise the important role of UNRWA, we must ensure that any resumption of new funding to UNRWA from the United Kingdom is based on those mitigations being in place.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, the Minister is aware that I asked the Foreign Secretary last week about concerns over potential breaches of international humanitarian law. The Department for Business and Trade instigated a change of circumstances review for export licences for military equipment in December, and the significance of the concerns has only grown since then. Can the Minister confirm that this is probably the appropriate time for that review to err on the side of caution and for the UK to follow Canada in pausing the export licences for military equipment to the Government of Israel?

Secondly, given the concerns about two of the Ministers within the Netanyahu coalition—Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, against whom these Benches have called for actions to be taken—can the Minister update the House on discussions between the UK Government and the Israeli Government on a free trade agreement? Does he agree that it is probably not appropriate to continue discussions about a free trade agreement with those two Ministers at this time?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord will be fully aware that, as the Minister responsible, I called out the statements made by the two Ministers he named as inflammatory and not reflective of a majority of progressively minded and right-minded people and citizens of Israel across all communities who do not adhere to the statements made by those Ministers; we have rejected those words. The more substantive issue of IHL is important; we regularly review our assessment and we have previously assessed that Israel is complying with IHL. The noble Lord will have heard the words of my noble friend the Foreign Secretary about the importance of this and, while we will not give a running commentary, we have to go through specific processes in this regard, and I assure him that we are seized of this.

India: Democratic Freedoms

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 14th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I would not compare India in any shape or form to Russia—we have to be very clear about that. On the specific case that the noble Lord raised, he will be aware that, following speculation on it, a thorough review undertaken by the West Midlands Police concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances. On the wider issues the noble Lord raised, the CAA, which he referred to, was a specific provision, and we have of course raised concerns related to that. But it is clear that it provides freedom of religion or belief protections and minority protections for people seeking citizenship in India from neighbouring Islamic states. We have raised concerns about minorities within the Muslim communities from those states. This amendment allows someone to get citizenship within five years, but Muslims from those states will still be allowed to get citizenship within the 11 years specified.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, further to the noble Baroness’s question on press freedom, I know this has been a focus of the Minister’s work on human rights. Across its services, the BBC provides more services to Indians than the entire population of the United Kingdom, but, as a result of harassment and intimidation, it has had to uniquely restructure its presence within India to operate from a purely private sector entity. Will the Minister reassure me that officials from the Department for Business and Trade who are negotiating an FTA with India will not provide a market-access offer for Indians to have opportunities in the UK media market while those are not reciprocal for broadcasters such as the BBC within India?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, the noble Lord is right. This Government stand up for media freedom and the protection of media. Indeed, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer initiated such a programme during his time as Foreign Secretary, and we stand by that coalition. We continue to raise those specific concerns related to the BBC with the Government of India, and I assure the noble Lord that, on the positive progress on the FTA, we want to ensure that it is an agreement that works for both countries, that is robust and that is in the interest of all communities, sectors and industries in India and the United Kingdom.

Gaza: Humanitarian Aid

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

I am delighted that Mark Bryson-Richardson, who I appointed as my aid co-ordinator, has met with COGAT; that is very useful. I can say to my noble friend that, yes, of course, getting more aid into Gaza requires the work of more than just Israel taking the relevant steps. But Israel is the country that could make the greatest difference, because some of the blockages, screening problems and all the rest of it are its responsibility. One proof point of that is that 18 trucks were dispatched from Jordan and they were held for 18 days at the Allenby/King Hussein bridge crossing. That seems to me the sort of the thing we need to act on faster to get that aid into Gaza. As I said in answer to the previous question, once it is in Gaza, it needs people to distribute it. That is about visas and capabilities, and deconfliction.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

The Foreign Secretary was very eloquent in describing the unnecessary blockages that have been put in place. He will agree with me that Article 50 of the Geneva Convention, on the requirement on occupying powers for children, is that they will not

“hinder the application of … food, medical care and protection … in favour of children under fifteen years, expectant mothers and mothers of children under seven years”.

Does the Foreign Secretary agree that these hindrances and blockages are potentially a war crime under the Geneva Convention and that, if any Ministers in the Israeli Government are actively blocking the inward supply of aid, we should consider sanctioning them?

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

It is our legal position, and has been for some time, that Israel is the occupying power in Gaza; that was the case before 7 October. After the evacuation of Gaza in 2005, it was not truly freed up as an independent functioning territory, so it is true that the way that Israel behaves as the occupying power in allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza is a material consideration when it comes to looking at how it is complying with international humanitarian law. As I have said many times at this Dispatch Box already, what matters is whether it has the commitment and the capability, and whether it is complying. That is what we keep under review.

Haiti

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

I am afraid that I cannot give an update on exact timings. As the noble Lord knows, the UN has given backing through a Security Council resolution to the existence of this force, so it is not a UN force but it is UN-backed, which is important. I agree about the general point that it is so important for it to be able to do its work. People who follow these things use what I think is the rather odd phrase that the state has to have a monopoly on violence, but it is true: we cannot possibly have development, progress and success when there are quite so many different armed groups in charge of different parts of that country.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

Kenyan judges have indicated that the deployment of the Kenyan police forces would be illegal under Kenyan law unless there was a reciprocal agreement with the Haitian authorities. That is why the former Prime Minister of Haiti was in Nairobi. Now there is no vehicle by which to have this authorised by the Kenyan Government. What is the Foreign Secretary’s assessment about the capability of having those forces deployed, since there will be no functioning Government of Haiti with whom to have a reciprocal agreement? Given that there have been no elections for eight years, no functioning Parliament, no functioning judiciary and the warning signs last week of the violent gangs, Haiti is potentially slipping towards becoming a failed state. What technical support are we providing to those who may provide security assistance?

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

The noble Lord is certainly right that the failure to hold elections is one of the contributing factors to the chaos that we now see. After the assassination of the former President, the fact that elections were not held was clearly one of the aggravating factors. The role of the Kenyan forces is a matter for Kenya to decide. I think that, with the United States providing $300 million and the backing of the UN Security Council, it will be possible to put together a mission. As I said, it is not something that Britain will contribute to in terms of personnel, but we are happy to make a small financial contribution.

Foreign Affairs

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 5th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, this debate has presented a fascinating combination of the global challenges—outlined so eloquently by my noble friend Lord Alderdice—that we now face mid-decade but which will be with us for many years, in fact decades, to come and how the UK Government have approached them over recent years. In summary, the former are immense, and the latter has been faltering in too many areas. Regrettably, there have been too many times in recent years, especially in development policy, when the UK has not been a dependable, reliable and predictable partner. All these factors are absolutely necessary if we are to have the international reputation and recognition that the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, and my noble friend Lord Bruce have indicated are in our interest.

I start with two areas that have been raised in the debate that need an immediate, far greater international response to humanitarian need. Last year at this time, I was in Khartoum. I met separately General Burhan and General Hemedti to support what turned out to be a failed process to prevent conflict between the Sudan armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces. As the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, knows, I have continued to support Sudanese civilians through their Takadum initiative, but have watched with ongoing horror the suffering of the people since last April: 8 million Sudanese driven from their homes, likely 15,000 dead and 18 million people whom the World Food Programme describes as being in acute hunger. What was the global community’s response? A paltry 3.5% of the $2.7 billion requested by OCHA has been raised. Trafficking in humans is now on the increase. My heart sank last week when I learned in a meeting that, in 2024, a slave market has been reported in Omdurman, outside Khartoum.

My noble friends Lady Suttie and Lord Bruce, and the noble Lord, Lord Boateng, mentioned the Wagner Group. I called for its proscription 11 times over 12 months and commend the Government for proscribing it, but I would be grateful if the Foreign Secretary could give an assessment of the impact that has had on the Wagner Group’s capability.

Sudan is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but it is the least reported and has had the worst global response. Gaza has understandably dominated much of this debate this evening, and I visited the Gaza border two weekends ago through the UK-based Jewish charity, Yachad. I also visited Ramallah, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As my noble friend Lady Janke said, of the reported 30,000 Palestinians killed, it is estimated that 70% are women and children. We know in all conflicts that women and children are disproportionately impacted.

I know that the Foreign Secretary is a student of political biography. In 1979, in the first speech by his predecessor Lord Carrington as Foreign Secretary in the Thatcher Government—the last time we had a Foreign Secretary in this House—he discussed the Middle East and said that

“the Palestinian problem lies at the very heart of the issue. The objective here must be full and genuine autonomy for these areas as a step towards determining their final status. Nothing would do more to help these negotiations, to build trust in the area, and to win the consent of the Palestinians than for Israel to cease the expansion of its settlements in the occupied territories”.—[Official Report, 22/5/1979; col. 240.]

That was the year of Security Council Resolution 446, which sought to prohibit illegal settlements. That year, they numbered not more than 15,000; 45 years on and the resolution not being adhered to, that figure is now 750,000.

We already know that settler violence in the West Bank in 2023 was the worst on record, so I welcome warmly the Government’s designation of the two settlers under the global human rights sanctions regime. I visited the part-UK-funded school and medical centre in the West Bank destroyed by one of the settlers now sanctioned by the UK. They acted with impunity, with material and economic support from government entities and Ministers, and these Benches call for the designation under the human rights regime of Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir as facilitators of the violence.

When I met the IDF spokesman, I asked for an estimate of how much they had depleted the capability of Hamas after four months of fighting. He told me that of the 30,000 estimated Hamas fighters, the IDF had killed 10,000. A remark was made at the meeting that 2024 will be a year of war. It is now obvious that there will be no sustainable military solution, and to secure neighbour security for Israelis and Palestinians we needed the bilateral ceasefire in November when these Benches argued for it, with a hostage release programme and the commencement of a political track including the recognition of the state of Palestine.

We have also heard about the ongoing Ukraine conflict and the ongoing suffering of the people of Ukraine. One constant across all sides of the Chamber is that we cannot afford for the Putin regime to prevail. However, as my noble friend Lady Suttie, said, the war inflicted on Ukraine has many fronts. The week of the full invasion, it was clear from messages that I received—when I visited Baghdad and Beirut and came back to the Chamber with reflections—that efforts in Ukraine must be matched with diplomatic and development efforts in the wider region, especially in the Horn of Africa, which is reliant on food supplies, to ensure that we did not present apparent and real double standards.

Unfortunately, we are seen by many around the world not to be reliable, and we have raised the concerns about double standards. We have welcomed and sheltered Ukrainians fleeing disaster but closed off routes for those from Sudan, Yemenis, Iranians and Rohingya. Indeed, the Foreign Secretary confirmed to me on 16 January that funding had been diverted from supporting the Rohingya to pay for the Ukrainian resettlement. The welcome UK aid for Ukraine scheme has been offset by cuts to famine support in the Horn of Africa, meaning our response to famine there was far lower than that to a lesser famine in 2018. These actions are significant because Putin’s objective is to undermine the rules-based international order to highlight its double standards and hypocrisy and instead present a multipolar one, even though we know that it is deeply threatening to neighbouring states. China seems aligned with that broad approach.

The noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, referred, rightly, to trade and development. But the UK has little credibility when we challenge developing economies, asking them to pivot from China when they know that the UK has by far the largest trade deficit in goods with China of any nation on earth, at around £50 billion. That deficit means that we are dependent on China in key sectors, while government policy has made it much harder to trade with Europe, with a cost of £100,000 per typical business in extra trade friction, bureaucracy and form-filling.

As my noble friend Lord Wallace said, reconnecting with Europe on trade—but also on security and intelligence—is now of geostrategic importance. It is an irony of Putin’s horrors against Ukraine that Europe is more united and less divided. This will potentially be a supremely important contingency should a second Trump Administration happen in America.

I declare that I co-chair the Trade Out of Poverty All-Party Group. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, when he says that trade and the Commonwealth offer significant opportunities; but not a single FTA with a Commonwealth country signed by the UK under this Government has included a Commonwealth chapter, allowed by the WTO, to pursue and promote intra-Commonwealth trade. I hope that before he leaves office, whenever that is, the Foreign Secretary will change tack and speak to the business department to ensure that that is corrected.

While we have become a less reliable partner, we have also become a less dependable one. At the UN last year, the Development Minister, Andrew Mitchell, said that the UK needed to regain and rebuild trust in the development area. But how can we do this when the Government do not even acknowledge that we have lost it? As my noble friend Lord Oates has indicated, we need to have dependable relationships too. The average tenure of an Africa Minister over the last eight years has been nine months. I was speaking to a diplomat during one of the many reshuffles and he said that the Foreign Office was currently finding out whether the new Minister for Africa had ever been to Africa.

With regard to what dominated the recent AU summit —the eastern lakes, the DRC and Rwanda—we know that there are very many potential conflict areas. Therefore, Rwanda is not only in our domestic legislation but potentially of foreign relations interest. On the Rwanda Bill, we talk about global human rights and the global rules-based order, but the Human Rights Council’s top headline on UN News two weeks ago, when we were debating the Rwanda Bill in Committee in this House, was that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was decrying the UK’s breaching of the rule of law and fearful of how other autocracies would feel that it would now be easier for them to do so.

Regrettably, I feel that the Foreign Secretary’s legacy will be his name on that Rwanda treaty; it is his signature. It is a terrible agreement, which, alongside its profound moral faults, simply will not work.

I return to why the UK needs to be a predictable partner in development investment. These Benches would adhere again—we would never have left it—to the 0.7% target in the 2015 legislation, which I had the great privilege to pilot through, with cross-party support. We are committed to its immediate restoration, and we want to see UK development expertise again recognised in an independent development department.

I return to the immediate: 2024 is already a terribly bloody year for civilians. I close with just two comments on a recent visit that I made. Rachel Goldberg, mother of Hersh, a hostage held by Hamas, told me of her empathy with Gazan mothers who have lost their children or are unsure where their children currently are. She told me, “There is no competition of pain and tears; there is just a lot of pain and tears”. The son of parents killed in a peace kibbutz told me how all his mother’s work and warnings had been overlooked in recent years. He said, “I can forgive the past. I can even forgive the present and those who commit the crimes, but I won’t forgive the failure to change the future”.

As we face the first anniversary in a number of weeks’ time of the present conflict in Sudan, I hope the Foreign Secretary will take time to focus on the Sudan crisis. In Gaza, the US and UK must now change policy and call formally for an immediate bilateral ceasefire. If we are to have a process after the day after, we need a day before. If we are to fight for the rules-based international order, there must be order, and we must adhere to the rules.

Death of Alexei Navalny

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 19th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating that Statement. I do not think that anyone in this House could not have been moved by watching Yulia Navalnaya at the Munich Security Conference. She spoke with remarkable strength and poise in moments of clearly utter grief. I join the Minister in sending our deepest condolences to her and her family.

The death of Alexi Navalny was shocking and yet cruelly predictable. He is yet another victim of the oppressive system that President Putin has built. He was not a saint, but he fought relentlessly and optimistically, with good humour, against the corruption and kleptocracy of modern Russia. He challenged not only Russian autocracy and kleptocracy, but also western hypocrisy and enablement. His campaign was not only against Moscow, but also against the corruption that he saw in London. We must deliver the changes for which he campaigned.

I must admit that, when watching the exchanges in the other place, I was disappointed that the Minister had little to say in response to the questions, without bringing forward any further measures in response to last week’s appalling news. The most consistent ask from MPs in the other place was for an FCDO Minister to come back to the House, ideally before Easter, with a more comprehensive update, particularly to cover things such as additional sanctions—whether against entities, such as the Deposit Insurance Agency of Russia, or personalities, such as Putin and family members—and the progress being made towards repurposing frozen Russia assets, given that Canada and Estonia have started doing this. I was also disappointed with the response to my right honourable friend Margaret Hodge, who asked what steps we are taking to close the sanction-busting oil practices, particularly through routes such as China and India.

My honourable friend Stephen Doughty asked about the support and efforts to secure the release of Vladimir Kara-Murza, whose health is in a terrible state after previous attempts on his life. He is now believed to be top of Putin’s hit list—another brave and vocal opponent of Putin languishing in prison for his beliefs. Of course, he is also a British citizen. I hope that the Minister can tell us what support we are giving to his family.

On all of the above, Leo Docherty said that the Government were working “at pace”. I know what the Foreign Secretary said last week and what the Minister has said—that they will continue to keep the House updated. However, it is not unreasonable to ask of these commitments the assessment on the timing and form of these actions. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, answering Questions last week, gave a very clear commitment on the progress of these points. He was very determined and said that he hoped to raise these issues at the Munich summit. I hope that the Minister can respond. The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, also mentioned last week—somewhat to my surprise as I was unaware of it—the further sanctions that the Russian foreign ministry had issued not only to academics and historians but Members of this House, including me. That is a clear attempt to intimidate and attack our freedom to criticise this appalling regime. I hope that the Minister can tell us what sort of response we have given to the Russian foreign ministry on that point.

Of course, Leo Docherty also said:

“There is no space or place for dirty Russian money in the United Kingdom”,


but he did not reference any steps that were being taken or provide an update on the implementation of measures in the recent economic crime Acts. Again, I hope the Minister might reference those specific points. Will the Government launch a new effort to target those networks that are responsible for facilitating and enabling international corruption, which is fundamentally the backbone of Putin’s efforts in his attack on Ukraine? Not a single fine has been issued for breaches of Russian sanctions that have been brought in since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

I hope that the Minister can update us about the new institutions that he has established. I asked for a timeframe in terms of enforcement when we last debated this issue. I hope that he can give us some clear indication tonight. I hope that the Government will soon be able to support the cause for the establishment of an international anti-corruption court. I welcome the sentiments and the commitments given by the Government in relation to the terrible crime of Navalny’s murder but hope that those words can be accompanied soon by bold and urgent action.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, some of us in the Chamber will be spending the rest of the day holding the Government to account and asking probing questions of Ministers. Some of us are frustrated, some of the questions are constructive, but we are carrying out democratic duties as politicians. We do so with utter liberty and take for granted that we are not under personal threat. Alexei Navalny, as the Minister said, paid for the liberty that we have with his life. President Biden has said that his death was

“a consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did”.

Indeed, the Russian Government is now a Government of thugs. It is painful to see many friendly countries sharing a stage with the Russian Foreign Minister, meeting Vladimir Putin, liaising and trading with the Russian Government and supplying them with goods. We still have to deal with them, of course, but they are dealing with a Government of thugs.

There are others, such as Vladimir Kara-Murza, whom the noble Lord, Lord Collins, referred to, who continue to be in danger. It was a real privilege to join my noble friend Lady Brinton to award the Liberal International Prize for Freedom to Evgenia Kara-Murza on behalf of her husband. Can the Minister state whether there is a higher degree of confidence that those in detention will be safe with the scrutiny that the rest of the world places on Russia? I fear that Putin feels that he has impunity. It is no surprise that the presidential so-called elections in Russia are a month away. This was probably a deliberate act to commence an election campaign in Russia, to show what being in opposition to the Putin regime means.

It seems that Russia is now operating under a war economy. I associate myself with the questions that the noble Lord, Lord Collins, raised, but why are the Government not expanding our sanctions regimes, recognising that Russia now has a war economy? Russia is now spending about 45% of its GDP on the military—an astonishing level. To some extent, it is propping up the entire economy of a nation. Therefore, we need to migrate the focus of our sanctions from individuals and companies towards the whole of the military-industrial complex. That will mean us having difficult conversations with those friendly nations that I referred to, including India and other countries which I have warned about with regard to the rupee-ruble swap for trading in oil for nearly two years now.

If we are to have no impunity for the regime, as the noble Lord, Lord Collins, said, we must ensure that all those involved in the process and associated with Navalny’s death—those involved in the process leading up to his detention, during his detention and now—are within the scope of full and punitive sanctions. We have wider tools available to us now. The global human rights sanctions regime allows immediate and rapid designation. Can the Minister state whether that is a tool that could be used?

It is also worth recognising that we are perhaps at a tipping point regarding Russia and Ukraine, as the Danish Prime Minister and others have warned. Ukraine must have the tools to ensure that, as well as his detractors being under threat, Putin cannot state in the election campaign that he is also claiming ground. The noble Lord, Lord Benyon, told me that the Government would potentially be open to considering windfall tax on frozen assets so that we could release money now that could be used for the Ukrainian war effort. Ukraine is in desperate need of our support now. The UK has frozen an extremely high level of assets, but they need to be materialised for active support for Ukraine. Can the Minister clarify the Government’s position?

I hope that if anything can jolt us into moving faster, it will be this tragic death. I too saw the video and associate myself with the condolences, but perhaps one of the best ways of showing that the thugs will not win is that there are actions by democratic nations as a result of that tragic death.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lords, Lord Collins and Lord Purvis, for their statements and questions. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, that it is incredible to think that the process of holding Ministers and the Government of the day to account, which we take almost for granted, is something denied so readily in what is called and perceived as a democracy. The irony is not lost on anyone that, at a time of election of the President in Russia, many have been sidelined and taken off the ballot.

As both noble Lords pointed out, the name of Alexei Navalny is not something that Mr Putin can even utter. There were brave souls in Russia who sought to make statements. One individual was taken off air as he was expressing condolences, which shows the control that people are subjected to and the duress people are under in Russia. I pay tribute—I am sure all noble Lords will agree—to those brave, courageous Russians who have gone out and marked the tragic death of this great leader, who sought to bring about accountability and democracy in Russia. Since he returned on that fateful day after being poisoned, he was, again, immediately detained. Look around the world: who would have the courage and conviction—having been directly targeted by this oppressive culture and regime, as the noble Lord, Lord Collins, pointed out—to return to that very land, knowing full well that this might mean the end to his freedoms? In this case, the tragic end was that he paid with his life.

The noble Lord raised the issue of Russian sanctions on UK parliamentarians; I assure him we take that seriously. The noble Lord, Lord Purvis, asked about other UK allies who also have relationships with Russia; I will be in India later this week and will have bilateral talks with the Indian Government. I assure noble Lords that I will raise these issues, as I have done previously. Both noble Lords asked about further sanctions and steps we are taking; they know that I cannot state anything specific at this time, but I assure them that we are working on these in the usual way. As I have extended the courtesy, I will seek to inform noble Lords on the Front Benches of the Government’s intention. I again put on record our thanks for the strong support for the sanctions the Government have imposed in this instance.

Noble Lords will be aware of the so-called Navalny list of sanctions on individuals. The Government have acted; of the original 35 names put forward, 29 were specifically sanctioned. I take on board what the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, suggested about the broadening nature and using our global human rights sanction regime—it is something I personally advocated for. It is there, it can be done quickly, and it is for egregious abuse of human rights.

We hold Russia accountable for this death and, while it has made statements that it will be fully investigated, the importance of transparency was again reiterated in the summoning that took place recently. In terms of further steps, a G20 meeting is taking place, which my noble friend the Foreign Secretary will be attending. There will be an occasion again to see how, in the wider context of the G20—which includes a number of the countries the noble Lord mentioned, and Russia itself—we can hold Russia to account during those meetings and the platform they provide.

Both noble Lords asked specifically about Vladimir Kara-Murza’s health. Officials in the UK and Moscow have repeatedly raised concerns for his health with the Russians. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, who is not in her place but who has been a very strong advocate for him. He is a British citizen, and the Russians are in no doubt about the strength of views and advocacy of the British Government in this regard. We will continue to demand that Mr Kara-Murza must be granted all appropriate medical treatment. We are concerned about his health, and we continue to implore answers from Russia about the basis of his continued detention. I assure noble Lords that we are very seized of that, and the cases of other detainees, and are working closely with the families.

The noble Lord, Lord Collins, asked about sanctions and enforcement. The Government have committed £50 million to support the new economic deterrence initiative, which further strengthens our diplomatic and economic tools. The new Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation will strengthen the implementation and enforcement of our trade sanctions. We take seriously the issue of circumvention, allegations of breaches, or evasion of sanctions, raised by the noble Lord. In August 2023, a UK company was fined £1 million in relation to unlicensed trade of goods in breach of the Russian sanctions. I acknowledge the point made by both noble Lords about circumvention of sanctions. We will continue to take evasion of sanctions very seriously. As I have said before from the Dispatch Box, for every step taken forward to tighten the regime there will be those looking at more elaborate ways to circumvent. We are working closely with G7 partners—leaders have tasked the relevant G7 ministries to report back on progress by the two-year mark of Russia’s invasion, and I will share that with noble Lords.

The UK remains fully committed to work with allies and we have introduced specific legislation, explicitly enabling us to keep sanctions in place until Russia pays for the damage it has caused. We support the action mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, about the EU—that is taken forward. I have said before that we are looking at each step taken by any of our allies and partners on how those seized assets can be utilised effectively. I know that all noble Lords are in agreement that they should be applied specifically to the reconstruction of Ukraine. As I have said, we are focused on that, but are ensuring that the legal basis for asset seizures is watertight.

I hope noble Lords will take the specific answers I have given—I know the noble Lord, Lord Collins, had some reservations but I hope I have provided some degree of detail—and, as I said earlier, I will personally ensure to update both noble Lords, and subsequently the House, on the further steps we will take, including evaluating further sanctions.

Developing World: Debt Reduction

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 13th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

The noble Lord is in very good company—I follow these things very closely.

The noble Lord is absolutely right about the importance of making sure that we do not have so many private sector holdbacks that hold up the vital debt restructuring of countries that get into trouble. We are trying to use things such as collective action clauses that work on bond issues—so they cannot hold out against repayment —as well as the majority voting provisions in new debt issuances so that private sector lenders are not stopping a country getting the debt restructuring they need.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

I agree with the Foreign Secretary about increasing the capacity of Governments’ treasuries and their finance ministries to collect their own revenues, as well as trade facilitation, so that those trade ministries have greater capacity to trade out of poverty. I declare an interest as the co-chair of the All-Party Group on Trade out of Poverty. Does the Foreign Secretary believe that it was a mistake by some of his predecessors to cut UK support for exactly those processes? Since he is now passionate about this, and I agree with him, will he restore that funding?

[Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Con)]

One of the great things that was done while I was out of government is one of the Government’s best-kept secrets, the developing countries trade system, which is more generous to the poorest countries in the world than the EU or the US. It is one of the most generous systems in the world, so in terms of helping countries to trade out of poverty, this Government have an excellent record.