Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Ian Paisley

Tuesday 12th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to pay tribute to the HALO Trust. Before I returned to Government I was an ambassador for the trust, so I speak with some pride in this matter. If he looks carefully at the International Development White Paper, which drew strength from all across the House in its commitments and identifying important aspects, he will see that HALO is mentioned there.

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

It is good to see you back in your place, Mr Speaker.

Is the Department monitoring the case of Raffaele Mincione, the British citizen who is currently being taken through the Vatican state courts, and is it making any representations to the Vatican courts about his case? Will officials agree to meet me to discuss the case?

[Mr Mitchell]

I can certainly organise for someone to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss that but, as he will know, arrangements with the Vatican were substantially changed in the year 1534, in the reign of King Henry VIII. As far as I know, there has been no change since then to reverse that.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN Convention on Genocide

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Ian Paisley

Thursday 7th December 2023 Westminster Hall

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Member for Strangford is quite right to identify the importance of Britain’s role as the penholder on Sudan. He will have seen the extensive work that we are carrying out in that role not only in the United Nations, but as one of the Troika and one of the countries that works closely with the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and many other bodies to try to bring peace and stability back to that country that is suffering so much. On the words that I used about what is going on in Sudan, if the hon. Member looks at Hansard tomorrow, he will see that I have been very clear in what I have said and what I have condemned.

On atrocity prevention, we joined Gambia in its petition to the International Court of Justice for measures against the Myanmar junta in its actions against the Rohingya people, which many have spoken of eloquently in the House.

On the issue of realising rights, human rights are essential to achieving sustainable development—a point that was made by the hon. Lady who leads for the Opposition, the hon. Member for West Ham. Our new international development White Paper, which has already been mentioned, sets out commitments towards promoting peace, justice and strong institutions. UK funding is supporting action to protect human rights across the globe, leveraging diplomatic engagement—I thank her for her words about the diplomatic service—and targeted programming alongside our international partners. The high commission in Kuala Lumpur is funding a project to support gender equality, networking opportunities and resources for women.

In Mongolia, Britain’s contribution to the UN trust fund to end violence against women has helped support women’s rights organisations to provide disability-inclusive services to survivors of intimate partner violence. In Ukraine, Britain’s funding so far has enabled 153 judges and 36 prosecutors to receive training in forming war crimes judgments to ensure that robust, evidenced war crimes cases can be brought to trial. In a connected world, the internet and independent media have a powerful role in supporting democracy and human rights. As such, Britain will continue to be at the forefront of efforts to support media freedom, to counter politically motivated internet shutdowns and to tackle disinformation.

Turning to promoting equality, our international women and girls strategy underscores the three E’s: educating girls, empowering women and girls by championing their health and rights—in particular, their ability to decide for themselves whether and when they have children—and ending gender-based violence. Work to make that a reality is needed at all levels. At the UN Human Rights Council, we partnered with the United Arab Emirates to secure a resolution on girls’ education and climate change. In the past year, Britain has sanctioned 15 individuals and entities that have committed human rights violations against women and girls, including crimes of sexual violence in conflict. On the ground, Britain’s programming supports women’s rights organisations to provide services to survivors of intimate partner violence. We also support up to 1.6 million marginalised girls across 17 countries to gain an education.

We must remain ever vigilant against attempts to roll back fundamental rights and equality for all. Too often we see attempts to reverse or undermine the rights of women, girls and LGBT+ people at the local and national level, as well as online. That has a huge impact on the lives and safety of individuals and on national prosperity, democracy and security. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal, with the full weight of UK expertise and clout, to shift the dial and stay true to the universal declaration’s promise of equal rights for all.

I raise the issue of the relevance of new technology. Of course, the world does not stand still, which is why I want to think about the future. Developments such as artificial intelligence present not only huge opportunities but risks for human rights. The Bletchley declaration of the AI safety summit recognised that the protection of those rights needs to be addressed for AI, alongside principles such as transparency, fairness, safety and privacy. The UK is committed to the design, development, deployment and use of such technologies in a way that is consistent with the rule of law.

The hon. Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) raised Somalia and the new resolution before the United Nations. He will be aware that the President of Somalia was a guest of the Government here in London just a week or so ago, and was the principal speaker, along with our Prime Minister, at the global food security summit. Britain is a very close partner of Somalia, involved in all aspects of that country’s work and life. I first visited Mogadishu 11 years ago. I went back there just under a year ago and saw the extraordinary changes being wrought in a country that has suffered so deeply from violence and underdevelopment. The auspices for beating back the terrorists are good—they are better than they have been—and we will continue to firmly support Somalia in every way we can. As the penholder on Somalia, we work closely with all parties to drive forward that ambition, and the declaration to which the hon. Gentleman referred makes that clear.

To conclude, 75 years after the declaration and convention, when the world stood firm to avow “never again”, freedoms continue alas to be under serious threat. Millions of people around the world continue to suffer persecution. There is a blessing recited on Holocaust Memorial Day that includes the words,

“our hearts grow cold as we think of the splendour that might have been.”

Every life lost is a loss for the world. Our past commitments must be used to build the future that every human being deserves, and I hope the words used across this debate will give encouragement to people in many places who are caught up in desperate jeopardy.

[Ian Paisley (in the Chair)]

Thank you Minister. I know that Members will appreciate that very comprehensive overview.

Israel and Hamas: Humanitarian Pause

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Ian Paisley

Monday 27th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

Britain has been very clear about the importance of respecting international humanitarian law in all circumstances.

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

The Minister must be concerned by those who seek to play down what has actually happened to innocent Israelis in the middle east. He must be gutted and alarmed that Leo Varadkar, the Prime Minister of a neighbouring state of ours, described one of the victims, an eight-year-old girl who was kidnapped and abused, as “lost”. That is unbelievable. Is the Minister concerned by the ever-increasing extremism and the anti-NATO and antisemitic attitudes emanating now from the Republic of Ireland? Is he going to have a word with that country about its attitude?

[Mr Mitchell]

The Government have been absolutely clear on where we stand on antisemitism and Islamophobia: we condemn both without qualification and will continue to do so.

Assisted Dying

Debate between Andrew Mitchell and Ian Paisley

Monday 4th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP)]

Each of us has personal experiences of our closest, our nearest and dearest, dying—if we do not, we one day will. I watched my father die, I watched my father-in-law die and I watched my brother-in-law die. One was in a hospice, one was at our family home and one was in a hospital, and the experience is shocking. That is life: in the midst of life, we are in death. Here we have no continuing. This is not our final resting place.

As a nation, we need a national conversation about death. The hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) mentioned that briefly, but we need to focus on it. It was said during the last debate that that should happen, but no one bothered their backsides doing it; no one took it forward. This House really should have a proper conversation about death, and let us put into that conversation real palliative care.

My dear friend, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), who I oppose, said that our hospice care in this country is superb. Indeed, there is an element of it trying to be superb, but let us be clear: our palliative care and hospice care system in the United Kingdom is struggling. It does not have the resources it requires. Hence, people say, “Let’s give hope to someone in a different way. Let’s try to find a way of ending pain.”

When we were faced with the coronavirus, did our Government give up hope, or did they put massive resources into funding a way to find a vaccine? That vaccine gave hope. When our country was struggling with the AIDS epidemic, did we give up hope? Did we say, “That’s a life sentence. Tough luck”? No, we put money and resources into medication and medicines that now ensure that it is not a life sentence.

What more can we do if the Government, with our help, put resources into cancer care and cancer research, incurable diseases and care, and palliative care? If we do that, we will achieve so much more, and as a Parliament we will give hope to people. Today, I am afraid we are giving hopelessness to some and saying, “This is the only way out. We can’t do anything more.” We can do more if we find the courage to do so. I appeal to the Minister: if there is a national debate—a national conversation about death and dying—will he make sure it is also a conversation about palliative care, faith, spiritualism and all the things we need a conversation about? If we have that conversation, we will find that we can give people hope.

[Mr Mitchell]

I hope I can just nail this point about palliative care. Both sides of this debate are strongly in favour of increasing palliative care. Does the hon. Gentleman accept that all the jurisdictions that have gone down the route that I and many of my colleagues have proposed have also prioritised palliative care and increased spending on it?

[Ian Paisley]

I am not for one moment saying, and I do not think that I can be accused of saying, that those who look at assisted dying do not care about palliative care. I do not think anyone is—are we really that heartless?—but I think we have to give hope to people. We need to turn this debate around into a debate about palliative care and helping people when they are at their lowest.

It is a fact that our health service is struggling; it is a fact that our cancer waiting lists are the worst in western Europe; and it is a fact that we need to do much more when it comes to giving care and carrying out research into rare and unique diseases, so that people can find a way out.

It is also very important that the statistics are not with this blasé view that says, “This is where Britain stands. They want to see a law change.” First of all, in the Republic of Ireland the assisted dying law was rejected overwhelmingly by Dáil Éireann, because it did not believe that it was a way that could bring satisfaction.

The threat to the disabled and the vulnerable has been raised by Disability Rights UK, Scope and the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council, all of which say that this debate on assisted dying causes them great concerns. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians do not support moves towards assisted dying.

I think there has been some—