Yemen

Alexander Stafford Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Alexander Stafford (Rother Valley) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Leicester East (Claudia Webbe), although I do not think that the Government are acting in a criminal way in the slightest. It was quite disingenuous to say that. The Government are acting under international law. Indeed, we are a fan of international law, so we are abiding by it.

Members of this House will know that I have a deep interest in middle eastern affairs. It is a part of the world that boasts great beauty, a rich history and a warm talented people. Yemen is of particular interest as an important bridge between the horn of Africa and the Gulf nations. However, the House will also know too well that the middle east has been deeply troubled in recent times, with political instability, terrorism, dictatorships and civil war. We should not talk about Yemen without mentioning its influential place in history. It was the mighty Ma’rib dam built in the 8th century BC that collapsed, causing a migration of 50,000 people into the Arab peninsula, which affected and influenced so much of the world’s great events. We also have to look at the great UNESCO sites, such as Shibam, which is known as the skyscraper city. Its 500 mud brick buildings over 98ft high are at risk from the civil war, so we must think about the cultural as well as the humanitarian losses during the civil war.

Hon. Members have spoken passionately in this debate about the dreadful human suffering currently taking place in Yemen. Nearly 250,000 Yemeni people have died since 2015 and 24 million people are in need of aid, with almost 4 million people having been displaced. Cholera and other diseases are omnipresent and health services and vital infrastructure are on their knees. These numbers are almost too great to fully comprehend. This is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, but unbelievably things are getting worse. Fighting has not let up and the casualties, especially among children, have increased. Furthermore, Yemen is especially vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus.

This crisis is one that should move every parliamentarian to action in a bid to stop this devastating conflict. I am therefore pleased to say that the UK has been at the forefront of global efforts to deliver aid and broker a peace deal. Only last week, the Foreign Secretary co-hosted an international meeting in Yemen, calling on the international community to step up its funding and humanitarian response and to pressure Yemeni parties to agree to the UN peace proposals. This is a civil war. Our duty is to broker a deal between the people.

My right hon. friend the Foreign Secretary has also announced a further £5.8 million contribution to the UN humanitarian response, bringing the total UK aid commitment to Yemen since the conflict began to £1 billion. That is us stepping up, and rightly so, to broker peace in the middle east.

Our efforts must be wholly focused on achieving peace in Yemen, and I welcome the opportunity for Members to press the Government today to ensure the implementation of the Stockholm agreement and to guarantee our continued assistance to the Yemeni people. Yemen is a wonderful, beautiful country. Yemen is a country to which we, in Britain, have a long history of connection. It is a country to which we have great affinity and it is right, therefore, that the Government are stepping up to the plate. I do think that it is disingenuous for us to be divided across this House while we are trying to broker a peace deal. When we are dealing with arms sales and other such issues, we obey international law, as we should. It is absolutely critical that the international community, led by the UK, secures long-term peace and stability in Yemen.

As we all know, Yemen was a hub of foreign languages before the civil war. Many people from Britain went to Yemen to learn Arabic. I myself learned Arabic not in Yemen, but in England—I would have loved to go there. It is a travesty for the whole world that we cannot embrace the country as it is. Therefore, I am pleased that the UK is stepping up to improve the situation and trying to work with all the parties involved. We owe it to the Yemeni people and to the country’s proud history and heritage. I know that we all look forward to Yemen’s emergence from the dark days into the sunlight of prosperity.

--- Later in debate ---

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, having—along with my SNP colleagues—raised this matter and participated in debates on it a number of times over the years. The awful gravity of the situation in Yemen means that it is a matter of profound regret that we so often have to raise these matters and so often have to repeat the harrowing suffering of the people in that country. One of the points that comes up again and again—in fact, it is impossible to have any discussion about Yemen without talking about it—is the shameful fact that the UK Government continue to persist in their sale of arms to Saudi Arabia, which is committing sickening atrocities on Yemeni civilians. Independent reports from a number of sources have shown over the years that by doing so, the UK Government are aiding and assisting war crimes. Yemen has long suffered a deep humanitarian crisis.

The UK Government, as we have heard again today from the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford), obfuscates, equivocates and pettifogs about the legality of arms sales to the Saudis, when it is as plain as the nose on your face that Saudi is a barbaric regime which has perpetrated appalling massacres on the Yemeni people. It is beyond sickening, it really is.

[Alexander Stafford]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Patricia Gibson]

No, I want to make some progress: other people want to speak.

It really is putting profit and trade in death before due and proper consideration for the sanctity of the lives of the Yemeni people and the huge suffering that they have encountered. We have heard today of “heavy diplomatic engagement” by the UK Government, but the arms sales to Saudi undermine and indeed mock any efforts by the UK to pretend to be an honest broker.

Despite the legal and ethical considerations, we have heard today that since 2013 the UK has sold £5.4 billion-worth of arms to Saudi. Let us not forget that the country we are selling arms to is the same country that punishes its homosexual citizens with public whippings, beatings, vigilante attacks, chemical castrations, imprisonment— possibly for life—capital punishment and many other forms of torture. Why do we not take a much firmer line with a mediaeval regime like that in the first place, instead of selling it arms so that it can perpetrate its own forms of barbarism? It is a country based on sharia law where women are legally the property of their oldest male relative. Is it any wonder that Saudi has no respect for the human rights of the Yemeni people when that is how it treats its own civilians?

The Government’s trade and foreign policies are contradictory. They sell arms to that regime so that it can slaughter civilians, while trumpeting their subscription to the global human rights sanction regulations on selling instruments of torture to the Yemenis. It really is time for the UK to stop the warm words, which will not save the lives of the Yemeni people. It is time to stop selling arms to the blood-soaked regime in Saudi, stand up properly, in practical terms, against the slaughter of the Yemeni people, and play a less equivocal role in this conflict.