Crispin Blunt
Main Page: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)Department Debates - View all Crispin Blunt's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
(10 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hague
I can say honestly to the hon. Lady that there would not be a consensus in the European Union on that. There is a consensus on the statement of guidelines on dealing with settlements that the EU adopted on 26 June, and there is, I am pleased to say, a consensus on the offering of what I described earlier as an unprecedented partnership with Palestinians and Israelis for the European Union—on the offering of that major incentive for the future. On all those things, the European Union is united, but there would not be a consensus on what the hon. Lady has just called for.
Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)
When the Minister of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Hugh Robertson), answered the urgent question two weeks ago following the dreadful murder of the three Israeli teenagers, the Palestinian children death toll due to the conflict had reached 1,406. On Saturday it reached 1,430, including the killing of four toddlers in the course of the last week. Will the Foreign Secretary now say what he has implied: that the Israeli action is disproportionate?
Mr Hague
Having been through several of these conflicts, I know there is always pressure in the House, or from others, to adopt totemic words of one sort or another, but I feel our diplomatic effort has to be directed at the things I have described—bringing about an urgent and agreed ceasefire, giving humanitarian relief, supporting the revival of the peace process—while calling for proportionate actions all round, and that is what we will continue to do.