Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

As I understand it, the United Nations appointment to which the right hon. Lady refers was a decision of the Asia-Pacific committee—it was not a decision in which His Majesty’s Government had any role—and was subject to an automaticity process, rather than a vote. We did not have an option to block that appointment, although the Foreign Secretary did raise her concerns about it at the United Nations.

The right hon. Lady has rightly highlighted the malign role that Iran plays, not just domestically—as I described to my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West (Mr Barros-Curtis)—but internationally. As has been said in this House before, Iran has continued to try to threaten communities in the UK, particularly British Jews. I have said to the Iranian ambassador here, in no uncertain terms, that if British Jews are ever found to have been harmed because of the actions of the Iranian regime, we would treat that with the utmost seriousness, as it deserves. We have sanctioned the entirety of the IRGC, we have imposed more than 550 sanctions, and we have very capable security services in this country. When the Iranians seek to act in the UK, we do find them.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

5. What steps her Department is taking to increase financial pressure on the Russian Federation.

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)]

I recently visited Ukraine again—Lviv and Kyiv—and saw again the brutal impacts of Russia’s illegal war on the civilians and, in particular, the children of Ukraine. That is exactly why we are determined to clamp down on the individuals and companies who are supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine and the sources of revenue for that war. We have imposed over 1,200 designations against Russia, including 300 new sanctions in February. We have led international efforts to disrupt the shadow fleet, sanctioning almost 600 vessels, and collectively our efforts with other countries have denied Russia access to at least $450 billion since its full-scale invasion four years ago.

[Chris Coghlan]

On Friday the United States agreed to extend the partial lift on sanctions on Russian oil exports. Does the Minister agree that this helps President Putin to fund his illegal and murderous war in Ukraine, and that it works directly against the national security interests of both Ukraine and the United Kingdom?

[Stephen Doughty]

The issues to which the hon. Gentleman refers are of course for the United States. However, we are very clear that we will continue to ratchet up the economic pressure on Putin, to force him to come to the negotiating table and to provide support to Ukraine. Our sanctions remain in place, and we continue to work closely with others to increase that pressure. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and I have been very clear that we cannot allow the current global situation to result in any kind of bonanza for Putin.

Strait of Hormuz

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

The Prime Minister has set out very clearly the decision-making process that he and the Cabinet have been through. He has been very clear about the need for us to defend our allies and partners, but he has also been clear about the fact that, in relation to the strait of Hormuz, this is not a simple task. We will be working with allies, including European partners, to bring forward a viable and collective plan.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Given the fate of the Russian Black sea fleet from maritime drones and that of ground forces from first-person view drones, does the Minister agree that there is unlikely to be a military solution to reopen the confined waters of Hormuz, and that we therefore need to find a diplomatic solution as quickly as possible?

[Stephen Doughty]

I completely agree that we need further diplomatic action, and that is exactly what the Foreign Secretary and others, including the Minister for the middle east—my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer)—the Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and me, have been engaged in during recent days and weeks. The hon. Gentleman raised the importance of different drone capabilities; when it comes to the wider situation and the threat that we face from drones, we work with partners, such as those I saw in Latvia just a few weeks ago, to develop the very best in capability and to learn the important lessons of Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine.

Iran: Protests

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

Putting Iran on the FIRS regime means that there is a new offence of seeking to act on behalf of the Iranian regime in the UK without properly so declaring, so it is harder for people to do that in this country without being exposed to the force of law enforcement. As I said just now to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies), UK law enforcement has proved itself capable of finding these people and ensuring that they are prosecuted.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

There have been many calls across the Chamber for sanctions and the proscription of the IRGC, which I fully support. I think we need to be honest and admit that those measures are unlikely to save the lives of protesters who are under a regime fearing for its survival, but I point out that the drone strike in 2020 against Soleiman, the head of the IRGC, did influence Iranian behaviour.

These protests follow on from western military intervention. As was pointed out by the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), the United States President has explicitly called on the protesters to overthrow the regime. That reminds me of the 1991 Shi’a uprisings in Iraq; President Bush did exactly the same in the aftermath of the Gulf war, and left those people to be massacred by Saddam Hussein’s helicopter gunships. Is the Minister considering that legacy in his deliberations?

[Mr Falconer]

When it comes to events across the middle east, I am reluctant to focus on a particular incident in the long and, I am afraid, fraught history of interventions and the violence that follows them, but we are of course considering the broader history of the wider region as we consider our response.

Proposed Chinese Embassy

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Foreign interference in British politics is of enormous concern to most Members, following the conviction of Reform politician Nathan Gill, who betrayed our country for a genocidal Russian dictator. In response, the Government announced the Rycroft review to investigate foreign interference, including by China. Will they delay the decision on the super-embassy until the Rycroft review has reported?

[Seema Malhotra]

The hon. Member will not be surprised to hear me say that the decision on the embassy is an independent process, but I will just emphasise to him that the UK has a broad range of powers to counter foreign interference, including acts that amount to transnational repression, and it is important that we take that extremely seriously in government and across the House. On the Minister for Security’s announcement last year about the training and guidance on state threats that Counter Terrorism Policing had offered to all 45 territorial police forces across the UK, it is important that that training is taken up, and that frontline police officers and staff have an enhanced ability to identify state-directed crime and the actions that must be taken to mitigate it.

Arctic Security

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The UK is continuing to hold discussions with European allies, exactly as I have been doing today with the Danish Foreign Minister, and as the Prime Minister has been doing throughout the weekend. He also made clear our strong view to President Trump and the US that we need to prevent these tariffs in the first place, and that we need to take action together to make sure that that happens.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Exactly two weeks ago, the Foreign Secretary told me that I was quite wrong to describe Donald Trump as a threat to liberal democracy. Since then, we have seen the horrifying shooting of Renee Good, trumped-up charges against the chair of the Federal Reserve, and direct threats to Denmark and this country. I understand that the Foreign Secretary cannot publicly agree with me, but if the Government are serious, why are we not seriously re-arming, especially when that will help our economy anyway? Is the Foreign Secretary worried that the hour is getting too late to act?

[Yvette Cooper]

I think the question the hon. Member raises is about the increase in defence spending, which is exactly what we are doing. We are investing—we are introducing the most substantial increase in defence spending for many years. Defence infrastructure was hollowed out under previous Governments, and that is exactly why we are increasing investment now.

Ukraine

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Last year in Ukraine, a Ukrainian MP told me that her husband had served on the frontline for eight years. She asked me if, in the event of a peace agreement, I would support British ground troops. I have, of course, questions about British ground troops, but I said that I would and that I am also potentially liable to serve myself. As a reservist soldier, I am proud to be under the same obligations to serve as any British soldier, because we live in times of enormous peril and we have a responsibility to lead.

We are threatened in the east by dictators and in the west by autocrats. Indeed, it is an open question whether liberal democracy will succeed in this century as it did in the last. Ukraine has been bearing the brunt of that fight and its sacrifice has bought us time. Ukraine still has a credible path to a just peace. European NATO GDP alone is 10 times the size of Russia’s, yet Russia has been spending $40 billion a year more than Ukraine and her western allies on the war in Ukraine. If we closed and exceeded that gap today, by seizing the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, then not only could Ukraine secure a just peace, but we would deter Putin from crashing into eastern Europe and testing article 5.

With President Trump disgracefully threatening NATO allies as well, smaller democracies must ensure that we are economically and militarily strong enough to defend ourselves together. It is the example of the United States, a country that I love, that can show us how. In the 1940s, refugees fled from the Nazis to the United States. They built the atomic bomb and they won the war. In the process, they developed a method of public research and development that academics now acknowledge has powered US technological and economic dominance ever since.

The Chancellor has recognised that. In the spring statement, she used the £2.2 billion increase in defence research and development to upgrade long-term UK GDP growth by £11 billion a year. The current and former Presidents of the European Central Bank called on Europe to borrow to invest in defence research and development not only to deter Russia, but to lift Europe out of the economic stagnation that has held back the continent and the United Kingdom since the financial crash in 2008. We can do this too.

President Reagan described America as a beacon. Sadly, it appears that that light is now fading, but I believe it has burnt long enough for other democracies to see it. Now, it is up to us, the smaller democracies, to ensure that we are also humanity’s best last hope.

Venezuela

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The hon. Member should not make a false equivalence between different situations; it would be inappropriate to do so. We will continue to work with the US in the discussions this week on the defence of Ukraine, which is in itself about maintaining international law and the rules-based order, just as we will continue to raise issues around international law in our private discussions with it and in public debates.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

Few of us regret the departure of Maduro, but many of us are alarmed by the breach of international law. However, I am most alarmed by Trump’s concurrent threat to Greenland and his previous threat to Canada. The Foreign Secretary says that she likes to deal with the world as it is, so precisely how many NATO allies does Donald Trump have to threaten until the Government recognise that he is a clear threat to the survival of liberal democracy in the 21st century?

[Yvette Cooper]

We are working with the US Administration on support for Ukraine, which is about support for a democratic, sovereign state that has been threatened and invaded by an authoritarian Russian regime. It is the US that is pursuing peace and discussing security guarantees for Ukraine, so I really think the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation of the world we are in is just wrong.

Middle East and North Africa

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

Let me be clear: the British Government oppose the use of the death penalty in all cases everywhere, as a principled position. We have also recently raised the treatment of detainees in Israel. I am happy to come back to my hon. Friend on his more detailed question about Mr Barghouti.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

I was extremely proud to serve on the anti-Daesh campaign in the Foreign Office and the Army. It is important to recognise that that campaign is just and represents the UK learning lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq in what has been a largely successful intervention. I strongly welcome the new Government in Syria, but it is concerning that there has been an increase in ISIS activity in the past year. In my experience, perhaps the most intractable issue with ISIS are the 27,000 ISIS members and their families in prison camps in Syria, including many children who are being radicalised. Can the Minister assure me that the Government and the global coalition are monitoring that risk and taking what practical measures they can to prevent the next generation of ISIS from emerging?

[Mr Falconer]

I thank the hon. and gallant Member for his service both in the Foreign Office and in the British military. I can confirm that the camps in north-east Syria remain a high priority.

Budget Resolutions

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine West (Hornsey and Friern Barnet) (Lab)]

It is an honour to follow the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), in this debate. Put very simply, this is a family-friendly Budget, and every family up and down the UK will be welcoming it. Gone is the vile rape clause, and an increase in family income is very welcome.

We have been through many traumatic times together in this House. We have been through the global financial crisis and its long tail. We have been through Brexit, and the right hon. Member was quite right to emphasise the vast difference between our economy while we were in the European Union and our economy now that we are not. I welcome the work being done at Cabinet level, and I ask the Cabinet to redouble its efforts to work on good trade arrangements under the EU-UK security pact to improve and enlarge our economy. And, of course, we have had covid. We heard about covid this week, with the publication of the UK covid-19 inquiry report. We all remember not just the impact on the economy, but the terrible impact on younger people in particular and the impact that that long tail is having on so many of our young people, who are still feeling too unwell to work or whose work opportunities have been severely reduced through anxiety, depression and all the other things that not just covid but that context of fiscal austerity brought down on them.

I represent a multi-faith, multi-ethnic constituency that works really hard on community cohesion. When all is said and done, we rub along well together in Hornsey and Friern Barnet. From recent rhetoric, it could be assumed that there is deep unhappiness and division. In fact, it is the opposite. I would like to put on record the contribution to our local economy from all parts of my constituency, regardless of skin colour, faith or school qualifications.

Of course, my community also faces challenges. We have unacceptably high numbers of children living in households where incomes do not cover the basics of heating, eating and rent. I really welcome today’s statement on heating, with help for households; on eating, with school meals, more breakfast clubs and help in particular for secondary school children with their nutrition; and on rent, quite rightly introducing a little more tax on some of the landlords who, in a wealthy place such as London, will be making quite a lot and can afford to pay a little more.

It is my first Budget as a member of the Treasury Committee. This Budget has rewarded those who fought to restore hope, stop the chaos of the 14 years of Conservative Governments and deliver change. Remember the election? We promised change. Today, we saw change. That change is an end to poverty-line family budgets. The hope is that we finally see food banks close for good.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

I thank the hon. Member for giving way. She is a colleague with me on the Treasury Committee. In terms of the Government delivering hope, a key part of the Government’s economic forecasting comes, of course, from the Office for Budget Responsibility. A lot of what has driven the Budget today is the £16 billion productivity downgrade by the OBR. We heard in the Treasury Committee that there was very little basis behind that productivity forecast in the first place and that it was based purely on UK productivity pre-2008 and not much real depth beyond that. Does she agree with me that the OBR has serious work to do to look at the robustness of its forecasts?

Gaza and Hamas

Chris Coghlan Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I associate myself very much with my hon. Friend’s comments. He knows that neck of the woods well. Our diplomats are excellent. I was pleased to be in New York in July when the declaration he describes was made. It was part of a declaration that included our own commitments in relation to the Palestinian state, which led to our recognition in September.

[Chris Coghlan (Dorking and Horley) (LD)]

We all hope desperately for a just peace in Gaza. I served alongside the Minister as a diplomat in the middle east and as a soldier. Given that, I particularly welcome the proposed international security force, but it is essential that such a force includes troops from Arab countries and possibly from western countries too, in order to reassure the Israelis, and that it is there for the long term and ready to take casualties. Will the Minister update the House on what progress there has been on the composition and the mandate of the potential force?

[Mr Falconer]

My friend the hon. and gallant Member is right to focus on some of these practical questions. He, like me, served in countries where peacekeeping forces were unable to keep the peace and unwilling to take casualties, and were therefore unable to fulfil their mandate. These are some of the most central and most delicate questions around the ISF. I hope he will forgive me for not giving a detailed commentary at this time, but I expect to return to the House to provide more detail when I am able.