Middle East

Debate between Brian Leishman and David Lammy

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I refer the hon. Gentleman to paragraph 2.13 of the ministerial code.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

With his 25 years of parliamentary service, the Foreign Secretary will no doubt remember when Tony Blair told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was a grave threat to international security. Of course, we then followed America into an illegal war in the middle east, and if the Prime Minister were to go down that same road, he would be wrong too. Is it not overdue that the Government follow an independent and, as Robin Cook memorably said, ethical foreign policy—one created here and not in Washington DC?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend allows me to put on record what a privilege it has been to serve and work as Foreign Secretary alongside a Prime Minister of such tremendous principle and legal learning, who entirely understands his obligations and what good government looks like, and is absolutely steadfast in his belief in the international rules-based order.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Brian Leishman and David Lammy

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

4. What recent progress he has made on helping to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr David Lammy)]

We are committed to securing consular access and the release of Mr el-Fattah. We continue to raise Mr el-Fattah’s case at the highest levels with the Egyptian Government. The Prime Minister raised this with President Sisi on 8 August, and I last raised it with the Egyptian Foreign Minister yesterday.

[Brian Leishman]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for his answer. Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is in the Gallery today on the 58th day of her hunger strike in protest at the continued imprisonment of her son, a British citizen, whose prison sentence in Egypt ended in September. I am sure that the Foreign Secretary feels the same as me and understands that Laila wants to know that her Government are doing everything they can to bring her son home. Will the Foreign Secretary guarantee that the UK Government will put a hold on any new economic or financial partnerships with Egypt unless and until British national Alaa Abd el-Fattah is freed?

[Mr Lammy]

I look forward to meeting Mr el-Fattah’s mother later on today. I reassure my hon. Friend personally that I share his determination and resolve to see Alaa reunited with his family, and I think their love and dedication to him is obvious to many parliamentarians whom they have met and campaigned with. My hon. Friend will understand that with the terrible situation in Gaza, it is important that this Government continue to speak to our Egyptian friends, who obviously have real proximity to Gaza. I understand the strength of feeling, and that is why the Prime Minister has raised this and I have raised this on successive occasions. Alaa is a dual national, and we will continue to lobby on his behalf.