G7

Debate between Lord Soames of Fletching and Baroness Chapman of Darlington

Thursday 20th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We have been very clear that we think that Israel ought to allow aid into Gaza, and that it is wrong to disrupt that flow and to cut off the electricity supply. What matters is that we can protect that population, feed those children and get the medical supplies where they need to be. On arms and restrictions, as noble Lords know, we take an approach that is based on the law, and we apply the law. We made decisions last year to impose restrictions; we will do so again should we need to in future. The situation today is the same as it was yesterday, and we have made no new decisions on that.

[Lord Soames of Fletching (Con)]

Following the ongoing work and conclusions of the G7, will the Minister have a further word with the Ministry of Defence about the extreme inadvisability of dispatching a carrier group to the Far East at this time, taking with it a very large amount of the depleted serviceable aircraft and ships of the Royal Navy currently available for operations? The carrier’s place now is in the north Atlantic with its escorts, and it should not go to the Far East.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I have a very good relationship with my colleagues at the Ministry of Defence, and I am happy to discuss any issue with them, but operational decisions such as that one probably would not fall within my remit. I am sure they will note what the noble Lord has said. They are free to make the choices that they have made, and they have more information on which to base those choices than we do here today.

Gaza: Peace Talks

Debate between Lord Soames of Fletching and Baroness Chapman of Darlington

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

As we have discussed previously, the problem with settlements and some of the activity we have seen around them is that it makes the two-state solution more difficult to deliver in practical terms—so we do have concerns, as the noble Lord says.

[Lord Soames of Fletching (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister confirm that in respect of these particular talks, quite apart from the vital necessity of the release of the hostages, it is very much the imperative that the Israelis are made to open more spaces for relief to starving Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The Israeli Government have a responsibility to allow aid to those who need it. The situation is urgent: the hunger and the deaths from the cold that we have seen among young children because of the change in the weather are appalling. We appeal to the Israeli Government to allow the necessary aid to reach those who need it.

Gaza: Humanitarian Situation

Debate between Lord Soames of Fletching and Baroness Chapman of Darlington

Monday 6th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I am the first to commend the noble Lord on the work that he did in office. My right honourable friend Anneliese Dodds was in the region in December having just those conversations. The noble Lord is right: anybody who can do anything, no matter how seemingly small, needs to lend their shoulder to the wheel to support people, to get the medical aid in and to address the humanitarian disaster that we see unfolding in Gaza.

[Lord Soames of Fletching (Con)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware that, for many of us, this institutionalised cruelty is contrary to all the laws of war? It does not seem to many of us that Britain is making enough of this. We owe it to those children and others in the freezing cold to make much more of this disgraceful behaviour.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We are providing £112 million to the Occupied Territories, and £41 million specifically for UNRWA, because we understand that it is desperate. We want the conflict to stop, we want the violence to stop and we want children to be safe. We are unable to achieve that immediately, but what we ought to be able to achieve very quickly is to get that aid in. At the moment that depends on facilitation by the Israeli Government. That has not been happening, and that is what we are calling for.