Prime Minister's Update

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Wednesday 25th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think that everyone has to reflect on their use of language. On the other hand, we must get Brexit done. I say in all candour that we must make sure that we end this national Brexchosis and national anxiety by delivering on the will of the people. [Interruption.] No amount of yammering from the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) will put us off doing that, and no amount of synthetic outrage or confected indignation will deter us either.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

Opposition Members are very quick to talk about the economic vulnerability of their constituents. The truth is that this country is vulnerable economically, because of the uncertainty created by Brexit and the lack of the resolution of the Brexit issue. There is a mountain of money waiting to come to this country, and I believe that once Brexit is resolved, it will come and create better jobs—better paid jobs—for all our constituents. With that in mind, if Opposition Members really do care about the economic welfare of their constituents, they should get behind the Prime Minister in getting a deal.

[The Prime Minister]

My right hon. Friend speaks of what he knows, because he has done so much to attract investment to this country, and there is a huge amount to come if, as he rightly says, this House can come together and get a deal over the line. I hope very much that we can.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

Of course.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

After years of kleptomaniac behaviour by the Kirchner husband and wife team in Argentina, President Mauricio Macri is struggling to get the Argentinian economy back on course. Will the Foreign Secretary commit to helping Argentina and President Macri with the International Monetary Fund and other organisations?

[Boris Johnson]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who knows a great deal about Argentina. I will be going there at the end of the month to pursue the current improvement in relations taking place between our two countries.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

As I am sure the hon. Lady knows, Myanmar is not signed up to the International Criminal Court, but there must be no doubt about the gravity of what has taken place. Anybody who flies over northern Rakhine, as I did last week, will see literally hundreds of villages that have been burned or destroyed. Some 680,000 people have been displaced. This has been ethnic cleansing on an industrial scale and it may also have been genocide. It is vital that the evidence is acquired to determine whether any future prosecution can be mounted.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

The recent extension of the state of emergency and the arrest of former President Gayoom and two Supreme Court judges has shown President Yameen tightening his grip in the Maldives and the further extinguishing of the democratic institutions there. Given the fact that at any one time there are literally thousands of British holidaymakers on those islands, and that until recently the Maldives was a welcome member of the Commonwealth family, will the Secretary of State agree to head up a mission there, or encourage the UN to establish one? The situation has the potential to bring China and India into an unwelcome regional conflict.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 9th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the Minister for Africa has raised that very matter with the South African Government only recently.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

2. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on the application of the Military Covenant’s duty of care to veterans living abroad.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 21st November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

On the contrary, I am sure that the whole House will join me in congratulating the Indian judge on his election. I am sure that the House will also agree that it is a fine thing that another common-law judge has joined the International Court of Justice.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as the deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a positive way of showing how a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe could be rehabilitated into the international community would be for it to attend the next Commonwealth summit as a rejoined member? To that end, will the Foreign Secretary begin to have discussions with his partners in the Commonwealth and with the Commonwealth secretary-general to ensure that there is a path to new membership for a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe?

[Boris Johnson]

My right hon. Friend rightly sets out what would be a fine and noble aspiration both for the Commonwealth and for Zimbabwe, but I must caution him that several steps need to be gone through before that can happen. There must be free and fair elections next year, and it then falls to Zimbabwe to apply to the Commonwealth secretariat and to make it clear to the Commonwealth and the world that Zimbabwe fulfils the criteria on human rights, rule of law and democracy that are necessary for Commonwealth membership.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Monday 13th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

Regrettably, more than a faint whiff of opportunism hangs over this urgent question, and others will question the wisdom of having this discussion at all. Does my right hon. Friend not agree that it is incumbent on each and every one of us in this House to pay very close attention to what we may or may not be about to say, because the Iranians will be watching these deliberations and we do not want to exacerbate an already extremely difficult situation?

[Boris Johnson]

My right hon. Friend is, I am afraid, absolutely right. That is one of the reasons why it is so important that we remain very careful in what we say about the entire case.

Balfour Declaration

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Monday 30th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

Indeed, and I am hard where it is necessary, but there is a job to be done. At the moment, as I think the right hon. Lady would accept, there is a conjuncture in the stars that is uncommonly propitious. I will not put it higher than that, but there is a chance that we could make progress on this very vexed dossier. We need the Americans to work with us to do that and we need them to be in the lead because, as she will understand, of the facts as they are in the middle east.

We need the Palestinian Authority, with a clear mandate, to sit down and negotiate with the Israelis and do the deal that is there to be done, and which everybody understands. We all know the shape of the future map and we all know how it could be done. What is needed now is political will, and I can assure the right hon. Lady and the House that the UK will be absolutely determined to encourage both sides to do such a deal.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

Of course it is right to mark the centenary of the Balfour declaration, but as we have already heard, we often concentrate too much on the first part of the declaration at the expense of the second. Does anyone really believe that the statement—the very clear statement—that

“nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”

has been adhered to? Does my right hon. Friend not agree that a positive way in which to mark this important centenary would be for the UK finally to recognise a Palestinian state, something many of us in this House believe would honour the vision of those who helped bring about the state of Israel in the first place?

[Boris Johnson]

I agree very much with my right hon. Friend that, as it were, the protasis of the Balfour declaration has been fulfilled, but the apodosis has not. It should have spoken of the political rights of those peoples and, by the way, in my view it should have identified specifically the Palestinian people. That has not yet happened, and it is certainly our intention to make sure that Balfour does not remain unfinished business. As I have said, we want to recognise a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, but we judge that the moment to do that is not yet ripe.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 17th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I remember reading George Kennan’s article many years ago and it contains much wisdom. The tragedy is that, in many ways, Russia is behaving as though there is a new cold war, and our objective is to prevent the situation from getting any worse by constraining Russia and ensuring that we penalise it for its malign and disruptive activities. However, it is also our objective to engage where we can, which is why I will be going to Russia later this year.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

A hundred years ago this month saw the start of the Russian revolution, which unleashed misery and purges against millions of Russian people. Although we are right to remind future generations and younger people about the evils of the past, for example through Holocaust Memorial Day, does my right hon. Friend agree that we owe it to the younger generation to educate them about the warped and failed Marxist-Leninist ideology that continues to unleash misery across the world? People should be very worried about that.

[Boris Johnson]

Absolutely. It is also worth reminding people that it was the Labour party that sneered at working people who tried to rise up against such regimes, and it was the Labour party that supported and connived in the repressive activities of Moscow for decades.

Korean Peninsula

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 5th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

On the American point, let me just say that it is vital that we keep the focus of our attention on Pyongyang’s primacy of responsibility for causing this crisis; anything else is a distraction. As for nuclear disarmament, let me make a comment I might direct to those on the Opposition Benches: surely to goodness this crisis shows the folly of unilateral nuclear disarmament. That is one of their policies and it would open up this country and others to nuclear blackmail from North Korea.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

It is more than 10 years since the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea tested its first nuclear weapon, and I am afraid that we have been paying the price for being caught like rabbits in the headlights; every time the DPRK has advanced its technology, we have somehow wished it was not happening and turned the other way. So we are where we are now, and I fully understand the US reluctance to reassemble the six-party talks, because previous such talks have been so thwarted by the DPRK. In all fairness, I must say that there have been some successes during those talks. If we look at the other options—containment; living with the DPRK as a de facto nuclear-armed state; or military action—we see that we owe it to the whole world to try to reassemble the six-party talks. We can empty-chair the DPRK if it does not turn up, but we must show that we are making one last huge push before other options are pursued.

[Boris Johnson]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that we are paying the price for previous complacency on this question. He is also absolutely right to say that we have had success in the past; we have shown that diplomacy and engagement can make a difference. We intend to pursue that path.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Swire and Boris Johnson

Tuesday 11th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his persistence in pursuing this cause. He is absolutely right, and we have spoken across this Chamber many times about the humanitarian crisis in Syria. I will have great pleasure in meeting the Syria group to discuss what the UK is doing, but the House will know that this country is the second biggest contributor of humanitarian relief aid to Syria in the world.

[Sir Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con)]

While I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister raised the issue of the Chennai Six with Mr Modi at the G20, may I urge my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary to focus his efforts on the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and to seek an urgent meeting with her? Our boys have been languishing in jail there for almost four years—I visited them myself—and it is time, frankly, that they were brought home.

[Boris Johnson]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. He suggests an interesting avenue for further work. I will certainly look at the possibility of talking to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Whether we will be any more successful with her in making our points, I will ascertain, but we will leave no stone unturned.