Ambassador to the United States
Chris Ward Excerpts(3 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Mrs Badenoch
My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. This is a Prime Minister who hides behind everybody else; whether his advisers, his junior Ministers or his Back Benchers, that is what he does. If he wants to blame advisers, which one was it? Who kept it from him? Why have they not apologised and resigned? No one is taking responsibility.
Thirdly, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Goole and Pocklington alluded to, the most likely but most worrying reason of all is that the Prime Minister had plenty of information to suggest that Lord Mandelson should not be appointed but chose to appoint him anyway. Even at the time, eyebrows were raised about this appointment and there were many critics; I remember it from the time. Now we read in the papers that the Prime Minister overruled security advice not to appoint Lord Mandelson. Is that true? The Minister should tell us.
It is time for the Prime Minister to come clean. He needs to come out of hiding. This issue will not go away. The Government cannot play for time as we will be back here again and again until all these documents are published. We will be back until someone takes responsibility.
This is a political crisis on top of an economic crisis all of the Government’s own making. They are distracted now, but they came into office with no plan for the country, no idea what they stood for and no vision for what they wanted to achieve. Because of that, they have been lurching from disaster to disaster, with winter fuel, tax rises, welfare chaos, scandal, and the Prime Minister’s failing leadership rebooted after just one year. The only plan they came into office with was a promise they made again and again to the British public: that they would restore honesty and integrity to Government. That was their defining mission, that was their grand plan, and it is in tatters.
So far, in one year, we have had an anti-corruption Minister sacked for corruption, a homelessness Minister sacked for evicting tenants, a Housing Secretary sacked for dodging housing tax, a Transport Secretary sacked for fraud and a director of strategy—apparently the speechwriter—lost only yesterday in scandal.
Mrs Badenoch
The Minister shakes his head—he should be shaking it in shame. I have not said anything that is not true.
Now, finally, we have a US ambassador sacked for his links with a known child sex offender. The Government claim to care about violence against women and girls, until they actually have to do something about it. Where is the apology to those victims?
I know the Prime Minister does not like difficult questions, but it is his judgment that is being called into question. He owes it to the country to come clean.
Oral Answers to Questions
Chris Ward Excerpts(8 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Sarah Green (Chesham and Amersham) (LD)
Chris Ward (Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven) (Lab)
The Minister for Development (Anneliese Dodds)
The UK will continue to use all diplomatic avenues to press the warring parties in Sudan into a permanent ceasefire, to enable unrestricted humanitarian access and to protect civilians.
Anneliese Dodds
I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s support for the measures the UK Government have been taking. Clearly, there are dreadful problems when it comes to civilian protection in Sudan. The UK put forward a resolution to the Security Council, with Sierra Leone, focused on the protection of civilians. It was appalling that Russia vetoed that resolution. We will continue to use every avenue available to us to promote their safety.
Chris Ward
I thank the Minister for her reply and for the focus she has given this important issue. The suffering, famine and displacement in Sudan are only intensifying, so will she outline the practical steps the Government are taking to protect human rights, promote peace and bring an end to this appalling conflict?
Anneliese Dodds
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning the extreme need to act on what is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The UK has doubled its aid to Sudan. We have sought to use the UN Security Council, as I mentioned. We ensured through the Foreign Secretary that there was a Sudan session with G7 and Arab Quint Foreign Ministers, and the UK special representative to Sudan has visited Sudan; that occurred in December for the first time since the conflict.
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Stephen Doughty)
The hon. Gentleman will be aware of the important work of the defending democracy taskforce, which works across Government here in the United Kingdom. We closely monitor developments in other countries; we have stood alongside our European partners, including Moldova specifically, in response to these efforts at interference; and of course, we recently appointed Margaret Hodge as our illicit finance and kleptocracy champion, to tackle many of the issues the hon. Gentleman has raised in relation to money.
Chris Ward (Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven) (Lab)
Mr Falconer
The UK Government consistently urge Pakistani authorities to act in line with their international obligations and respect fundamental freedoms and human rights. I raised these issues during my visit to Pakistan in November and in my statement to the House on 28 November. We issued a further statement on 23 December about the role of military courts. We have made it clear that the UK supports individuals’ rights to freedom of assembly and expression, and we will continue to do so.