Oral Answers to Questions

Catherine West Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

T5. Wimbledon has one of the largest Korean populations in the UK, and there is widespread concern in the community about the ongoing situation in South Korea. Can the Foreign Secretary tell the House what communications, if any, the Government have had with acting President Choi or suspended President Yoon concerning the current situation?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Catherine West)]

The UK Government have been in touch with the South Koreans, our great friends, and we continue to support the arrangements there, any democratic moves towards stability and the ongoing relationship with the UK.

[Mary Glindon (Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend) (Lab)]

The Israeli Government have stated that Israel’s presence in the Golan heights buffer zone is defensive, limited and temporary. Given that the Israeli Cabinet has recently approved a financial package to increase the number of illegal settlements in the Golan heights, what assessment has the Secretary of State made of the veracity of Israel’s statement?

--- Later in debate ---

[Douglas McAllister (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab)]

My constituent Jagtar Singh Johal has been in arbitrary detention in India for more than seven years. The Secretary of State and his ministerial team have been extremely generous with their time and assistance to help resolve the situation, but can I seek the Minister’s assurance that those efforts are ongoing?

[Catherine West]

Ministers have engaged frankly with counterparts in India on Mr Johal’s case, pushing for faster progress towards a resolution, including the call for an investigation into allegations of torture by the authorities.

[Mr Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) (Con)]

The Government are right to continue the all-party approach to the next International Development Association replenishment of the World Bank, which is extremely good value for taxpayer money. Will the Foreign Secretary press the Treasury to match what the former Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Godalming and Ash (Jeremy Hunt), did in adding £2.5 billion to the 0.5% official development assistance budget, to help defray some of the costs of first-year asylum seekers, which that budget bears? Otherwise, we will be spending more development money in UK postal districts than in Africa.