Ukraine

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for his questions and his continued support for Ukraine. We are determined to tighten the restrictions much further, not simply on the oil and gas companies, although this is the first time we have sanctioned these major companies, but on the distribution networks and those who continue to profit. On 12 September, I announced 100 new sanctions, including on 70 more ships in the shadow fleet. Today, in the second sanctions package that I have announced since being appointed, I have announced sanctions on a further 44 shadow fleet ships, because we are clear that the shadow fleet is undermining the impact of the sanctions that we have set out.

On Russian sovereign assets, if what we do is to have a proper impact, both on Russia and on the market, it is right that we should work alongside partners, and we welcome the statements from President von der Leyen and the G7 Finance Ministers. I can tell the hon. Gentleman that this is a huge priority for me and for the Chancellor, who is pursuing those exact issues about timetables, and about the final steps we need to take around Russian sovereign assets in Washington today.

The issue of the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea football club is a priority for me personally. We must ensure that those proceeds can reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion. I am deeply frustrated that that has not been possible so far, but we are fully prepared to pursue this matter through the courts if required, while the door for negotiations remains open. Again, I have discussed this matter not just with the Chancellor, but internationally.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Speaker, the Speaker’s Office and the Deputy Speakers for the gracious welcome they today gave Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Speaker of the Rada. Also, seeing the Foreign Secretary in Kyiv on her first foreign visit was a real fillip for the people of Ukraine.

I thank the Foreign Secretary for the sanctions package, but I would like to ask further questions about the seizure of Russian assets. I am pleased that we are ready to progress the seizure of Russian assets, and that we have announced work with France and Germany, but are we working at pace with our allies to ensure the seizure of Russian assets? Ukrainians know that their best chance of winning this war will come from the move from freezing to seizing assets. Will the United Kingdom provide finance for the reparations loan that the EU proposes?

[Yvette Cooper]

I thank my hon. Friend for his continued work for many years on Ukraine. It was certainly very good to see him at the event in Kyiv. I can assure him that we think that the new mechanism that the EU has drawn up and provided to mobilise effectively the assets that are being held is really important. We support that work, and we believe that we, the EU and other allies should try to make rapid progress now, because ultimately, the rebuilding of Ukraine and support for Ukraine should be paid for by Russia.

COP30: Food System Transformation

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

With COP30 just one month away, the UK could consider utilising article 6 of the Paris agreement to support global food system transformation. Article 6 was agreed at COP29 last year, and now is an opportunity to move. Article 6 of the Paris agreement enables international co-operation to tackle climate change and to unlock financial support for at-risk countries. Article 6.2 enables host countries to sell units to a buyer country, in exchange for investments, support for capacity building and access to technologies not available through domestic resources. The buyer country purchases these units to address any gaps in meeting its own climate goals.

The UK needs to do more to support countries to establish domestic systems and address technical implementation issues. The UK is well placed to support countries to build infrastructure including carbon accounting, safeguarding and governance to implement article 6.2. No trades have yet occurred, but investment is there for countries that desperately need it. Such opportunities can be used to address many issues in countries on the frontline of the climate crisis, including soil degradation, deforestation, drought and ocean acidification. Addressing those issues is essential for retaining food systems and for the food system transition.

I wish to turn my attention to Ukraine, which is the breadbasket not only of Europe but of the world, with the richest soil on the planet. The UK should begin to consider an article 6.2 co-operation agreement with Ukraine. War has damaged its industrial systems. Keeping the lights on and costs down is a daily priority, not a distant goal. Every month without investment locks in higher costs and lost output. Through article 6 we have the opportunity to support not just Ukraine’s agricultural system, but its whole system. The pipeline is practical and measurable: solar and storage on rooftops and other sites, grid loss reduction, industrial efficiency, afforestation and methane cuts to support all the systems in Ukraine, not just the food system. Those actions would be verified simply, reported publicly and financed at scale. Ukraine is ready. Article 6.2 is an opportunity not only for the evolution of carbon markets, but for us to support countries in which the food system is failing and there are opportunities to re-nature and restore, utilising global finance.

Middle East

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I assure the hon. Member that I have made those representations to the Israeli Government, and so has the Minister for the Middle East, who sits next to me. I also know that this is a topic of conversation among other Foreign Ministers across the developed world. We think that international journalists play an important part in the landscape and scrutiny of any democratic country. Israel often reminds us that it is a democratic country, and it is important to let those journalists in.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

I have been talking about starvation in Gaza for the last 18 months, and now it is officially recognised as a famine. Today I want to raise with the Foreign Secretary the starving of one man: Marwan Barghouti. Shortly after we announced the recognition and the Israeli Government retaliated, in my view, with the E1 plan, Ben-Gvir entered his cell in an Israeli prison, and he was very clearly being starved. It is time that Marwan Barghouti is freed by Israel. A man of peace who can push forward the peace process is being starved and not given access to his family, the International Red Cross or his legal team. What more can we do to see his release and enable him to get his human rights and not be harassed and threatened by Ben-Gvir, who we have sanctioned?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful, as I am sure the whole House is, for the update on that situation. I will not comment on the individual case, but when I was making the IHL assessment on a clear risk, which was previously referred to, one of the areas that I looked at closely and where I did believe there was a clear risk was the treatment of prisoners. I am therefore grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding the House about those humanitarian concerns.

Humanitarian Situation in Sudan

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Steve Race (Exeter) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I, too, thank my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) for securing time for this debate, and for her continued commitment to raising the humanitarian situation in Sudan through debates, questions in the House and briefing meetings for Members such as me and others in the room with people from the Sudanese diaspora community and those who have experienced at first hand the tragedy that is unfolding in Sudan.

As we have heard, with the conflict in Sudan now entering its third year, the country is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises on record. The impact is wide-reaching. It includes mass displacement, shocking attacks on healthcare facilities and aid workers, a raging cholera outbreak and mass atrocities against civilians, including sexual violence and widespread gender-based violence. However, as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on nutrition for development, I will concentrate my remarks on the unprecedented severity of levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in Sudan.

At the start of this month, together with the Minister for international development from the other place and the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding), I opened a photographic exhibition in Parliament on why nutrition is foundational to development aims in the UK. One of the images on display, taken by Peter Caton for Action Against Hunger, was of Nyibol; 27-years-old, six months pregnant and with a young daughter, she is one of up to 12 million people in Sudan forced from their homes.

Nyibol was forced from her livelihood as a peanut farmer, and had to endure an exhausting journey over four long days in search of safety because her village was attacked and her house burnt down. She was fortunate to be reunited with her husband and eldest daughter after being separated while running for survival, and to receive malnutrition screening on arrival at the border checkpoint, but many are not. This mass displacement, together with ongoing conflict, high food prices, a collapsing economy, disruption to supply chains, challenges in agricultural production, the breakdown of essential services, and severely limited access to healthcare, nutrition and humanitarian services is fuelling Sudan’s continuing slide into famine.

The most recent integrated food security phase classification report for Sudan, published in December, found widespread starvation and a significant surge in acute malnutrition, with half the population facing high levels of acute food insecurity. That includes more than 8 million people in the emergency phase, and at least 638,000 people in the catastrophe phase. The IPC’s latest alert, published 10 days ago, confirms that the situation will deteriorate over the coming months.

Despite the fairly favourable harvest season in parts of Sudan, major production gaps and supply barriers persist, exacerbating food insecurity. Constrained access to treatment services, worsening road access, and the increased threat of floods as the country enters its rainy season, raises serious concerns, especially for children, during the July to September lean season between harvests, which we are now entering. Levels of malnutrition are such that people are increasingly succumbing to treatable illnesses that would not normally be a threat to life, such as diarrhoea. This is a particular concern with cholera, which is already present and likely to spread in the rainy season.

We all know the importance of good nutrition to development. Without access to nutrition, the potential of each person, community, and country is held back. Entire economies are undermined, and poverty and suffering persist.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

As my hon. Friend knows, the issue of malnutrition for the Sudanese is not contained to Sudan. Many millions of displaced people are in neighbouring countries, and those countries are unfortunately also suffering from conflict, whether that is Uganda, South Sudan, Eritrea or Rwandan militias in the DRC. Do we not need to also take action to ensure that the Sudanese are getting adequate nutrition when they are displaced into neighbouring countries that are also seeing conflict?

[Steve Race]

I completely agree, and of course Chad is home to many of the displaced Sudanese too.

Poverty and suffering persist and provide fertile recruiting grounds for extremism. It is encouraging to see the UK continue to take a leadership role as the penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, and through convening the London Sudan conference, committing £120 million of UK aid to support over 650,000 people in Sudan this year.

However, with ongoing famine in Zamzam, in camps in El Fasher, and in the western Nuba mountains, which the Famine Review Committee warns is extremely likely to spread to additional areas, can the Minister update us on additional UK efforts to ensure the sustained delivery of food, nutrition, water, and health assistance to prevent further loss of life—particularly nutrition-specific interventions including ready-to-use therapeutic food? Recovery rates of children with severe acute malnutrition who receive a full course of RUTF are over 90%.

Can the Minister also update us on progress towards ensuring unhindered access for humanitarian and commercial actors across borders and conflict lines, including through the Adre border crossing and El-Obeid corridors, and to communities under siege in El Fasher and surrounding areas? Those access routes need to be expanded and stabilised now before the height of the rainy season. Finally, how are we ensuring that lifesaving aid, including RUTF to treat severe acute malnutrition, will reach those children who desperately need it, and that aid workers are protected?

Sudan

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Wednesday 16th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West]

The UN Security Council is not just about military intervention, in terms of the security; as the right hon. Gentleman is aware, it is also about the impact of the diplomatic solutions. As the penholder, the UK has the most important role to try to bring everybody together around the table, which is why we had the London Sudan conference. There were some who threw their hands up and said, “We haven’t achieved anything,” but I think the important thing was that we laid down a marker, and that we are now following up with other partners and being seen as leaders in the area. It is by using the UN Security Council leadership role that we will eventually get to a solution. However, the right hon. Gentleman is quite right to say that there are a lot of fingers in the pie.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

What is happening in Sudan—in Darfur, in particular—is one of the world’s deepest and longest-running humanitarian crises. Unfortunately, we are seeing rising tensions and military action in neighbouring South Sudan, particularly in the Upper Nile region. The Ugandan army has recently entered South Sudan, and there is a real risk of regional conflict and civil war, which would create a much deeper humanitarian crisis across the whole region. What is the UK doing to de-escalate that potential conflict, such as talking to Uganda and South Sudan?

[Catherine West]

My hon. Friend is quite right to say that the longer the war lasts, the greater its ripple effect. We should give credit to countries like Egypt, Chad and South Sudan, alongside others nearby, for managing this crisis and for taking so many people in. There has also been aid from countries like the UK, but the impact within the region is devastating. I will certainly take back to the Minister for Africa my hon. Friend’s point about the impact on South Sudan and reply in writing with what we are going to do this month—not waiting until September, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran) said.

BBC World Service Funding

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[John Slinger (Rugby) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for securing the debate. He is not only an hon. Friend, but a running partner of mine.

On Tuesday, in Parliament, I had the pleasure of attending a BBC World Service panel, where we heard from the right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) on many things, such as how he regrets that the Government in which he served insisted that the World Service should largely be funded by the licence fee. The fee, paid exclusively by British residents, must now tenuously cover 75% of the cost of the World Service, a service designed almost entirely for an external audience, but which has huge public benefit to the British people, if not a huge British public consumption rate.

At the time we are debating this subject, Russia and China have invested up to $9 billion in informal soft power, which is quite a bit more than we spend. They do so because propaganda, often disguised as news, works. It works today, as it did in previous decades and indeed centuries. British children spend an average of 127 minutes a day on TikTok, a Chinese app, and we saw Russian propaganda influence in the elections in Poland and Moldova recently. This is not the time for Britain to draw back. I continue to salute the BBC Russian team, which I visited earlier this year with the right hon. Member for Maldon on an Inter-Parliamentary Union visit. That team counters misinformation with impartial and accurate journalism, at significant personal cost.

Our greatest tool for soft power must be brought back from the brink, because once that point is reached, it will be increasingly difficult for us to recover such international influence.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that this form of soft power, the BBC World Service—in particular, the Farsi and Russian services—is a much more cost-effective way to try to create democracy and democratic change in countries than military action is?

[John Slinger]

Absolutely. Of course, military action would be unthinkable in those cases, but what is thinkable is the truth being promulgated through impartial media.

In that panel earlier this week, we heard, for example, that after closing the Voice of America service, the US Agency for Global Media has failed to regenerate any Iranian listenership, or the amount of Iranian listenership that it used to have, for its broadcasts covering the current Iran-Israel crisis. Presence breeds trust, and the presence of the truth, in my view, is an absolute must.

Currently reaching about 400 million people a week in 42 languages, the BBC World Service is adapting rapidly and becoming more informative, engaging and appealing to a broader audience in an incredibly competitive attention economy. Clearly, the World Service has immense potential to bring people and nations together, and I am delighted that the most recent Budget increased funding by 31%.

Despite the significant budgetary pressures on the FCDO, I wish to use all the soft power that I possess to encourage my hon. Friend the Minister to do all she can to increase funding for the World Service and provide a cast-iron guarantee into the future. This is the crucial moment. We have an opportunity to prevent a diminution in our international power, just as that soft power and our British broadcasting values of tolerance, truth and impartiality are needed most. More than ever, we need to increase and protect the funding. When those values prosper, so do the world, freedom, hope and democracy.

Middle East

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his service in the RAF. I refer him to the statement that the Armed Forces Minister will make to the House shortly about the security of our sovereign bases.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

Just a week ago, we were here calling for de-escalation because there were so many civilian deaths, but in the past week we have seen an escalation and so many more civilian deaths in Israel, Gaza and Iran. We know that it is much easier to get into a conflict than to conclude it. If the justification for military action is now a nuclear weapons programme and being a threat to neighbours, how many other nations fit that category? Is North Korea not another example, but with an even more advanced nuclear weapons programme? Where are we in terms of justification and article 51 of the UN charter?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend’s question goes to the heart of why it would be a travesty for Iran to withdraw from the non-proliferation treaty and why we must work to ensure that it does not become a North Korea. It must never have a nuclear weapons programme, and we will do everything to stop that happening.

Iran-Israel Conflict

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am always prepared to take friendly advice from the right hon. Gentleman. This is a very serious threat. We know that the JCPOA has been breached. President Trump has been pretty clear in his expectations, as I have been pretty clear with the Iranian Foreign Minister. I recognise that if Iran is to take the off-ramp, it must get serious in the coming days about its obligations to the international community and about ending that nuclear capability.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

As always, civilians are paying the heaviest price: there were 1,195 casualties on 7 October, with at least 74 hostages since; there have been 55,000 casualties in Gaza; this weekend, 24 Israelis were killed by Iran, and 224 Iranians were killed by Israel. We need to de-escalate this conflict, and quickly. Those 55,000 people in Gaza deserved a future. I understand that the conference to be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France on the two-state solution has now been delayed. What are we doing to get that back on track, and how will we progress that solution?

[Mr Lammy]

I recognise that my hon. Friend has long been a champion of these issues. He is right that the French, alongside the Saudi Arabians, took the decision to postpone the conference, which I think was the right decision. As my hon. Friend will understand, many partners—particularly Arab partners and partners in the Levant—want to be in their countries at this time. There is a lot of diplomacy; he will have heard the list of countries I have been speaking to. We must focus our efforts both on ensuring that ceasefire in Israel and Gaza and on dealing with Iran’s nuclear capability.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I condemn antisemitism unreservedly, in London or anywhere else. Let me be clear: Hamas—the whole organisation—is proscribed in the UK. When it comes to Hamas, we do not make the careful differentiation that I have made this afternoon between Israeli Ministers. The whole organisation, lock, stock and barrel, is proscribed by the UK Home Office. That has force under law, and it does not matter whether they are here or not. We continue to call on Hamas to release hostages, to return to a ceasefire, and to have no future role in the governance of Gaza.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

On 23 May, I stood in exactly the same spot where I am standing now and asked the Foreign Secretary to sanction Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, so I thank the Government for their action today. The Palestinian people are now in existential crisis. Even this week, we saw the Israeli military board a British-flagged vessel in international waters and confiscate it. Mass starvation events in Gaza continue, and as the Minister has said, there is increasing settlement action on the west bank. I have been to the region and met senior members of the Palestinian Authority, and I am proud that the Prime Minister took the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority into Downing Street, and that we have a trade envoy to Palestine. The Palestinian Authority is a government under occupation, and has all the effects of government, so what is stopping us from recognising them as the legitimate government of a state? What is the Minister’s view of the Palestinian Authority?

[Mr Falconer]

In our view, the Palestinian Authority is central to a two-state solution. We want to see it reformed and strengthened, and in control of both Gaza and the west bank. The MOU that we signed with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Mustafa, was part of those efforts.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Alex Sobel Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

Four hundred and thirty aid workers have been killed—Gaza is the deadliest place on earth for humanitarians. The hon. Lady is right to recognise those tremendous aid workers. Let me also reference the medical workers and the children who have lost their lives. It is absolutely appalling. We will continue to do all we can to bring this to an end.

[Alex Sobel (Leeds Central and Headingley) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am sure that we are all absolutely horrified that the Israeli Government are creating a mass starvation event in Gaza. We are seeing the language of a Gaza plan that talks about the “concentration” of the Palestinian people in the south of Gaza, and even works against its own citizens. Nine Israeli citizens have been arrested—including civil society leader Alon-Lee Green, who I hosted in Parliament only last week—and have not yet been released. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that this is a deliberate and systematic attempt to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza? Is it not time that, instead of sanctioning those taking orders, we sanction those giving the orders in the Israeli Government?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend has consistently raised these issues. The abandonment and displacement of Gazans to that small strip is entirely unacceptable. The idea that we could see this go on right through 2026 is abominable. Tom Fletcher was right to speak out in recent days, and that is why we are seeing this response from international partners. I hope that Netanyahu heeds the words of friends.