Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Cameron Thomas and David Lammy

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. Let me be crystal clear. Hamas must never be rewarded, and we will not reward it by the UK’s recognition of Palestine if we reach that point. Our demands of Hamas are absolute and unchanged: it must immediately release all the hostages who were cruelly taken on 7 October 2023 and held in the most atrocious conditions, which we have already discussed in the Chamber this morning.

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to increase economic sanctions on Russia.

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

Until Putin stops his barbaric assault, we will keep tightening the screws on his war machine with even more sanctions. Since coming to office we have sanctioned more than 680 individual entities and ships, more than double the number of designations made in 2023.

[Cameron Thomas]

Vladimir Putin is in Beijing this week, where he has hailed the unprecedented levels of ties between China and Russia. For once I hope that the Government will actually take him at his word before China builds the super-embassy in our capital.

China has ceased exports of drone components to Ukraine, and both Xi Jinping and Kim Jong Un are propping up Putin economically. I commend the Prime Minister for uniting a coalition of the willing, but what tangible action is it taking to ensure that Ukraine wins against three adversaries?

[Mr Lammy]

I thought that one of our proudest moments was watching President Zelensky walk up the steps of No 10, and reflecting on the role that the Prime Minister has played in corralling the global community around the coalition of the willing. The hon. Gentleman will have seen the Prime Minister with President Zelensky again in Washington DC just a few weeks ago. In all that we are doing—on the oil price cap, in raising the issue of Russian sovereign assets with our G7 and European partners to try to resolve that issue, and through sanctions—we are leading the world.

Middle East

Debate between Cameron Thomas and David Lammy

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

Again, I understand my hon. Friend’s strength of feeling. She knows that there will be a two-state conference on 28 July, and of course we will participate. But she will have also detected that at that conference our French and Saudi Arabian colleagues are talking not about recognition but about how we get to two states and get an enduring ceasefire. It may be that as we head to September and the United Nations General Assembly the issue of recognition is raised once more.

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

Since 2023, the Israel Defence Forces have killed a record number of journalists and killed a record number of humanitarian workers. They continually murder starving children as they queue for aid. An Israeli soldier outed his commanders for their illegal orders to arbitrarily kill civilians. That is not a sequence of coincidences, but war crime after war crime and a clear message to the world: do not intervene and do not observe what we are doing to the Palestinians. The Foreign Secretary has said that he wants a two-state solution. He can take a giant leap in that direction right now with a one-word answer. Does the Foreign Secretary recognise the state of Palestine?

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Member has heard what I have said about my commitment to two states. He knows that we have not yet got a ceasefire, and he knows that we are working with international partners to ensure that we get an enduring ceasefire. He knows the debate around recognition, because I have talked about it not just in Select Committees but at this Dispatch Box on many occasions.

Middle East

Debate between Cameron Thomas and David Lammy

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for the gravity with which he is treating this important topic. One week ago, he told me that he had “huge confidence” in our ability to defend our middle eastern assets from Iranian strikes, but within two days, two strategic assets were vandalised by a couple of civilians on e-scooters at RAF Brize Norton. Does he recognise that the UK must not follow Trump into Netanyahu’s war with Iran, when force protection is inadequately resourced at home?

[Mr Lammy]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his service in the RAF. I refer him to the statement that the Armed Forces Minister will make to the House shortly about the security of our sovereign bases.

Iran-Israel Conflict

Debate between Cameron Thomas and David Lammy

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Cameron Thomas (Tewkesbury) (LD)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement. The Iranian regime is a malignant international force—who knows how many British lives have been lost to its sponsorship of international terrorism. The Iranians have explicitly stated a threat towards our assets and our people in the middle east. How much confidence does the Foreign Secretary have in our ability to mitigate those threats?

[Mr Lammy]

I have huge confidence in our force protection measures. I remind the hon. Gentleman that we have important military and intelligence assets in the region and bilateral defence relationships with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and, of course, Israel.