Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Visit

Baroness Levitt Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Levitt (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome the Statement from the Minister and the action of the Government, particularly in signing the memorandum of understanding, which advances the issues that we face every night on our televisions. I associate myself with the comments made by the noble Baroness across the Chamber about the humanitarian issues that are happening as we speak. There is immense human suffering taking place. I welcome the emphasis that the Government have now placed on beginning to tackle that.

My noble friend the Minister has pre-empted a number of the questions I wanted to ask about what we are doing to work internationally to try to lift what is, in effect, a blockade on help and assistance going to the Palestinian people. Therefore, can she give us more information about the £101 million that has been shared with the Palestinian Authority? In stark contrast to the previous contribution, I think it will be welcomed broadly across the country as recognition of the suffering that we are witnessing and of the investment the Palestinian people properly deserve. Can the Minister share with the House in future the progress of that spend and communicate to the Palestinian Authority and Prime Minister Mustafa the support that they have in this Chamber? We recognise the plight of the Palestinian people and that the best way to solve these immense problems, as the Minister said, is shared understanding.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her question, her long-standing interest in this topic and the thoughtful way she goes about raising these issues. We have announced funding recently, but this comes after the money that was announced for the OPTs in 2024-25. This included £41 million for UNRWA, providing vital services to civilians in Gaza.

In answer to the question about why we are providing this support now and to the Palestinian Authority, I invite noble Lords who are concerned about this to consider who it might be that would be leading this work in Gaza if it were not for the people who are currently doing it. They are mostly technocrats who had other roles, who have come back and want to do the right thing by their population. They are deserving of our support. The reason we have had to put additional aid in is, frankly, the absolutely desperate situation that civilians—who have had no role in any of the violence—find themselves in.