Middle East

Dan Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I can assure my hon. Friend that since coming into office, we have introduced three batches of sanctions against Iran. Over 450 nationals are now under UK sanctions.

[Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic, so can he please update the House on the work that the Government are doing to provide more aid and to ensure that it gets to those who need it?

[Mr Lammy]

My hon. Friend is right: the humanitarian situation is dire. That is why I was at pains to emphasise what we are doing. It was important that we led the way on getting the pause so that children could be vaccinated against polio. I was very distressed to see that pause broken just a few days ago, and we are urging for it to be resumed once more so that those children can get their second vaccination dose. That is why the work of UK-Med is very important; it is why the current DEC appeal is also very important; and it is why we will continue to support people who are sick and injured to be evacuated from the area.

Hamas Attacks: First Anniversary

Dan Tomlinson Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jon Pearce (High Peak) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing this important Adjournment debate. Today is the anniversary of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel. It was a pogrom in which at least 1,195 Israelis and 79 foreign nationals from some 30 countries were murdered, over 4,800 people were injured and more than 250 men, women and children were taken hostage. It was the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history and the bloodiest day in the history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

[Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way so early in his speech. It is worth pausing to reflect on the fact that the atrocity was so bad and so many people lost their lives at the hands of Hamas because Hamas intended for that to be the case. In the year that has followed, so many innocent people have lost their lives, suffered and been displaced. Will he join me in condemning Hamas and its evil actions, which took place on 7 October?

[Jon Pearce]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s intervention and completely agree that Hamas is a terrorist organisation that set out that day to murder as many innocent civilians as it possibly could. Talk of statistics risks robbing the victims of their humanity and precious individuality. I want to touch on some of the incredible stories from that day.

Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Tomlinson Excerpts

Tuesday 30th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Hamish Falconer]

That is a very important question. Iran clearly remains an extremely hostile environment for journalists, who face harassment, arbitrary detention and long prison sentences. We will raise this issue with the new Iranian Government when they are formed—as the hon. Member will know, they are having their inauguration today, so there are no Ministers yet for me or the rest of the Foreign Office team to talk to. The Foreign Office currently provides a quarter of the BBC World Service budget, and we will no doubt look at that as part of the wider budget review.

[Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister to his place. As we were tragically reminded again this weekend, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a destructive, malign and terrorist force that is operating through proxies in the middle east, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Will the Minister please update the House on the ongoing work to proscribe the IRGC, which the Conservatives sadly failed to do when they were in government? Will he please also reassure the House that the UK continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against the IRGC’s continued aggression?

[Hamish Falconer]

The Government recognise the threat that the IRGC poses, and we will take the necessary measures to counter it at home and abroad. We will keep the list of proscribed terrorist organisations under careful review, but it would not be appropriate to comment on whether an organisation is under consideration at this time. Iran continues to destabilise the middle east through its support for its proxies and partners, and we will work with international partners to challenge that destabilising activity.

Israel and Gaza

Dan Tomlinson Excerpts

Friday 19th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question, which gives me an opportunity to talk about what I saw on the west bank. The situation is febrile—it is anxious. There is tremendous hardship because of the withdrawal of those funds. It is phenomenally tense, and against that backdrop, people are watching their land being taken from them before their eyes. As such, the representations that my hon. Friend has asked me to make are absolutely the representations I made when I spoke to the leadership in Israel, because this simply cannot continue, and we must act to stop it.

[Dan Tomlinson (Chipping Barnet) (Lab)]

I welcome the Foreign Secretary and the whole Front-Bench team to their place—it is wonderful to see. I also welcome the visit that the Foreign Secretary made to the middle east, and thank him for the time he spent visiting the families of the hostages who have been held in Gaza for nine months now. I ask him to commit to do everything he can to ensure those hostages are released immediately.

[Mr Lammy]

I welcome my hon. Friend and north London colleague to his seat. He represents a part of the country with a significant Jewish population; in my own constituency, I am very proud of the Stamford Hill area of Tottenham, which is also a historic home of the Jewish population. They are hugely concerned about the plight of hostages, and they worry that the discussion about hostages has fallen off the lips of so many people. They worry that the horrors of 7 October have been forgotten against the backdrop of this unfolding crisis and this war, and I want to reassure them and my hon. Friend that they have not been forgotten. The British Government—and this is a cross-party issue—are working very closely with the Israelis and others to see the hostages released.