Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

We have long been clear about our concerns about Iran’s continued destabilising activity throughout the region, including its political, financial and military support for a number of militant and proscribed groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen. We will continue to work with international partners to promote stability and security in the region and to do everything we can to ensure that that activity ceases.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Kilburn (Tulip Siddiq) for championing the rights of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and for securing this urgent question. The United Nations has ruled that Nazanin’s imprisonment is unlawful and ordered Iran to release her. What more can the British Government do to work through the wider international community to put pressure on Iran to follow its international obligations?

[James Cleverly]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. It is good that we have international support on our calls, which reflects our belief that the charges are illegitimate and that her detention and that of other British dual nationals is unacceptable. We will continue to work with international partners and directly with Iran to secure all their releases, and we are grateful for the international support that we have received on this issue.

Bahrain: Prisoners Under Sentence of Death

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

My right hon. Friend and predecessor knows better than many the nature of our relationship. I commend him for his work on this issue directly with the Bahrainis. As I have found in many cases, both public and private, I can commend the work that he has done and agree wholeheartedly with it. It is the strength of our relationship—the long-standing, strong and powerful relationship between the Government of the UK and the Government of Bahrain—that allows us to support improvements when they are put in place and to ensure that oversight bodies improve their independence and effectiveness. We will continue to push for that improvement.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I thank the Minister for his statement arising from this urgent question. The situation is now very serious, given that both Mohammed Ramadhan and Hussain Moosa are at risk of imminent execution should their sentence, which is based on a torture-obtained confession, be upheld in five days’ time, so will the Minister ask our ambassador to Bahrain urgently to attend their trial in Bahrain as an international observer?

Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend was very deft in getting the EU issue into his question. I reassure him that, at E3 level and more broadly, we want to co-ordinate with our European partners, friends and allies. The Magnitsky sanctions are a good illustration of how we can reinforce and strengthen co-operation in the years ahead. Law enforcement vehicles for co-operation are certainly important. We want to see what the right approach is under the future relationship, but I know the work that my hon. Friend has done and have no doubt about the value that such co-operation can add.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab) [V]]

I wholeheartedly welcome the statement and the measures that the Foreign Secretary has announced today. Given its expertise in gathering intelligence and evidence of human rights abuses and corruption, will the Foreign Secretary be proactively canvassing civil society, both in the UK and globally, in drawing up the lists? May I press him further on the points raised by other hon. Members in relation to Hong Kong? Will he seriously consider opening the door to naming in any future designation the perpetrators of abuses under the new national security law?

[Dominic Raab]

We will certainly work with all our international partners to accumulate the evidence. The hon. Gentleman asked about civil society and non-governmental organisations; yes, we absolutely will work with them. Indeed, sometimes the primary evidence comes through open-source reporting, so that relationship is very important. As I have said to the House already, we will look at strengthening the regime as we go forward. I am not going to second-guess subsequent designations in relation to China or any other country, not least because of the importance, as has already been highlighted, of making sure that we have a rigorous and judicious process leading up to designation.

Humanitarian Law (Yemen)

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 5th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ellwood]

I can confirm that we are the fourth largest donor. My hon. Friend is right to say that the figure is £85 million and, looking at my Department for International Development colleagues, I hope we will be able to increase it. I know that every effort will be made at the UN General Assembly in the coming weeks to rally other countries to provide more financial support and to make sure that it reaches those people who genuinely require it.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Will the Minister outline what procedures are in place for the sharing of United Kingdom intelligence with Gulf states? What assurances can he give the House that none of that intelligence is being used to support the airstrikes in Yemen?

[Mr Ellwood]

I cannot comment, for the obvious reason that we do not discuss intelligence matters at the Dispatch Box.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swire]

Yes, I agree, and I condemn all forms of violence and excessive use of force. Equally, we made it clear in public and in private that justice must be done in a manner that fully respects the international human rights standards to which Bangladesh has signed up.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Human Rights Watch identified Bangladesh as having the highest rate of child marriage. This is a fundamental breach of human rights, particularly for those girls who are forced into marriages at such an early age. What are the Government doing to make their views known to the Bangladesh Government, and through the Commonwealth and other organisations, that such practice is not acceptable?

[Mr Swire]

Clearly, it is not acceptable, and we continue to have a robust dialogue with the Bangladesh Government. We are also a significant aid donor working on some of these projects in that country.

EU Membership: Economic Benefits

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

What assessment has the Foreign Secretary’s Department made of the length of time that it would take for the British Government to negotiate not only a trade deal with the European Union, but, as he mentioned, all the free trade deals that currently exist between the EU and other parts of the world, so that we can trade with the rest of the world?

[Mr Hammond]

The hon. Gentleman raises a good point, and he will have heard the Prime Minister talking about that very issue only a few moments ago. We can expect that it would take us at least two years to negotiate our exit from the European Union if that was what the British people decided on 23 June. Thereafter, we would have to negotiate a trade deal with the European Union, and then trade deals with the 53 other countries around the world with which the EU has free trade agreements.

There is a small technical hitch, to which I have drawn the House’s attention before: we do not have any trade negotiators, because for the past 40 years the European Union has conducted our trade negotiations for us. It is about not just time but the price that we would have to pay to negotiate that access to the single market from outside. From the evidence of others who have done that, the answer is clear. That price would involve our freedom of movement, acceptance of the entire body of EU regulation, and a whopping sub to boot—all the things that the leave campaign tell us we will escape from—with no say at all in how the rules are made. It would be the worst of all worlds.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Matt Warman), who described next week’s vote as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”. Having been born in 1974, that is certainly how I see it. I was just one at the time of the last European referendum in 1975. For me, it really is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to plough our future. At that time, my constituency voted to remain in the European Economic Community by 2:1. I have been knocking on doors for several months and have spoken to many of my constituents on the Labour In for Britain bus and at the street stall last Saturday in the centre of Denton, so I am not naive enough to think that that result will be repeated next Thursday. It is likely that when the votes are counted, my constituency will be on the opposite side of the argument.

In common with the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness, I think it would be remiss of me not to explain to those among my constituents who have yet to make up their mind why I believe that a vote to remain in the European Union would offer the best future for the communities that make up Denton and Reddish. I do so by challenging some of the assumptions of the leave campaign. I was unfortunate enough to watch its television broadcast last night, and it seemed to fall into five areas: the £350 million; the NHS; immigration; Turkey; and “take back control of our country”.

Well, we know that the £350 million figure is incorrect because it fails to take into account the rebate that Mrs Thatcher secured or the money we get from the EU for our fishing and farming industries, for science, training, education and urban regeneration.

When it comes to the NHS, I say that money cannot be spent twice. The money that we send to the European Union would almost certainly have to be sent to the EU anyway for us to continue to trade within a free trade area. If we use Norway as an example, we find that it pays more per head of population for its position than we do to be a fully paid-up member of the European Union. That money is not going to be there for the NHS.

As for immigration, if we have a Norwegian or Swiss-style deal—, of course, none of us actually knows what deal the Brexiteers are proposing—we shall have to accept free movement within the single market. And as for Turkey, we have a veto on Turkish membership, because we are at the table with the other 27 European Union member states. If we give that up, we shall have no say, particularly if the rest of the European Union reaches an agreement on Turkish membership, and we are in the free trade area that will then include Turkey.

Finally, there is “taking back control”. I agree, in one sense, with the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood), who says that being in a free trade area, or a common market, means having to accept common rules and regulations. What kind of control are we taking back when we give up our seat at the table in the Council of Ministers, when we give up our European Commissioner, and when we give up our European parliamentary seats, where precisely those common rules and regulations are being made? That is not taking back control; it is giving up control.

I say this to the constituents of Denton and Reddish: next Thursday, vote remain.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I strongly agree with my hon. Friend’s point. Of course we must not be part of the Schengen area. We will not be part of the Schengen area, and thanks to the special arrangements we have negotiated with the European Union, we are able to enjoy the benefits of membership without being forced to take part in the passport-free area.

I would say to my hon. Friend that although the Syrian civil war was clearly the immediate cause of the flow of refugees that Europe faced, primarily last year, statistics show that about 50% of those arriving in Greece are actually not from Syria or the surrounding area but come from further afield. What started as an exodus from the Syrian civil war and the Daesh occupation has become a wider movement of people.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The measures introduced by our European partners—working with other countries, particularly in the former Yugoslavia —such as the civil protection mechanism are starting to have an impact in the region. What further work can be done to share information through Europol to make sure that we really tackle the scourge of smuggling across eastern and central Europe?

[Mr Hammond]

The hon. Gentleman is right: sharing information between European security agencies, intelligence agencies and border police is key to breaking the business model of the smugglers. That is one of the key elements to solving this problem. Such people are being exploited by the organised criminal gangs that are taking their money, often for very little in return, and we need to nail them.

Europe, Human Rights and Keeping People Safe at Home and Abroad

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 24th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

The latter point is more important than the former, if I may say so. It is not simply a question of nipping out and calling up the jobcentre to say, “Could you send us some experienced trade negotiators to hire?” We would literally be starting from scratch. I look across the Atlantic to the world’s largest economy and its trade negotiation team, under Michael Froman; that is an extremely good team, but it is very small and has struggled to carry out two trade negotiations in parallel. I am afraid that the idea that in a matter of months, or even years, we would have negotiated a massive deal with the European Union and 53 separate trade agreements with other countries around the world—before starting on the ambitious expansion programme referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron)—is, to quote the Prime Minister, “for the birds”.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Is the situation not actually worse than the Foreign Secretary has set out? Many of those countries have signed trade deals with the EU in order to access the single market. Was he as dismayed as I was to hear major proponents of Vote Leave call for us not to rejoin the single market should we leave?

[Mr Hammond]

I was indeed astonished to hear leading exit campaigners suggest that we do not want to be part of the single market. Until relatively recently, their position was that we could have it all—be outside but somehow get free and privileged access to the single market. That was never likely to be possible, but it was at least an ambition. Now we are told that we do not want to be part of the single market. I can read that only as a manifesto for the impoverishment of the British people. We know from the Treasury’s own model that we would be looking at a reduction in our standard of living of £4,300 per annum per household by the end of the next decade. As the Prime Minister said yesterday, sometimes we have to deal with recessions and economic pressure from outside, but we should not have to deal with a made-at-home, DIY recession that is entirely self-inflicted. We should avoid that at all costs.

In the spending review and the strategic defence and security review published at the end of last year, we took clear decisions to invest in our security and safeguard our prosperity, to maintain our world class armed forces, to grow our unique security and intelligence agencies—and, through the Investigatory Powers Bill, give them the powers they need to track down terrorists and others who seek to do us harm—and to protect our global diplomatic network by maintaining the budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in real terms. All that is underpinned by our decision to meet the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, and the UN target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on overseas aid, making Britain the only major country in the world that meets both those commitments.

Aleppo

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ellwood]

I pay tribute to my hon. and gallant Friend for his work during a previous campaign. He has a huge amount of knowledge of what the Royal Air Force does, and he will therefore appreciate that the fact that his is an operational question prevents me from giving him a firm answer. However, if he would like to talk to me in the Lobbies, I shall be more than happy to have a quiet chat with him.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The bombing and shelling of civilian areas in Aleppo is sickening, and calls into serious question the Assad regime’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the situation in Syria. So too, however, do the attempts to collude and trade with Daesh, as described by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson). What more is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office doing to bring together all sides, and to make it clear that action of this kind is compromising our efforts to secure a peaceful settlement in Syria?

[Mr Ellwood]

The hon. Gentleman has articulated how complicated Syria is. However, that should not prevent us from playing our part in bringing Daesh to account, along with the international community. We are destroying Daesh on the battlefield, we are destroying their ideology, and we are destroying their ability to get their message out via the internet. We are also providing humanitarian aid and stabilisation capabilities in areas that have been liberated. The piece of the jigsaw that remains difficult is the political situation and the transition in Syria, and that is why it is so urgent for talks to resume in Geneva.

Libya

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The idea of Daesh being present in Libya is worrying enough in its own right, but the prospect of them moving their operational headquarters from Iraq and Syria to Libya should be deeply worrying for us all, especially the Secretary of State. What discussions has he had with his Libyan counterparts and with those countries neighbouring Libya on stemming the flow of Islamic militants into the country?

[Mr Hammond]

I have had discussions with the Libyans and with the Egyptians and Tunisians, who are very concerned about this. The problem is that the principal route of access into Libya for Daesh militants appears to be by sea, and the Libyans are struggling to control that route with their current resources.