Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I reassure my hon. Friend that the raison d’être of the merger is to bring together our aid clout and heft with our diplomatic reach and muscle. If he looks at the visit I made to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, he will see the support we provided for the Palestinians in dealing with covid alongside our diplomatic support for a two-state solution; if he looks at the situation in Yemen, he will see that we are doing the same; and he will see the same in our response to the explosion in the port of Beirut. I think he will find that we are practising what we preach, which brings together the aid—taxpayers’ money—with our diplomatic muscle to make a real difference on the ground.

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

Will the Foreign Secretary tell us what representations the Government have made to the Turkish authorities over their latest silencing of political opposition, with the arrest of 82 members and office bearers of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, the HDP? Do the Government share the view of many of us that those actions are, once again, a fundamental violation of human rights against the Kurdish population?

[Dominic Raab]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, Turkey is a close NATO ally, but that has never stopped us from raising human rights across the whole range. We will obviously continue to do so as a part of our partnership.