International Women’s Day
Dave Robertson Excerpts(2 weeks, 6 days ago)
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Dave Robertson (Lichfield) (Lab)
Earlier, the hon. Member for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman) mentioned that it can be difficult to advise people to come into the role that we all do. She would be well served just by playing people a recording of what we have heard in the House today. This debate has been of the highest quality, and I thank everybody for their contributions so far. It has been a genuine pleasure to listen and be part of it.
We have had the whole gamut. People have taken the opportunity to big up their own constituencies. My hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett) and the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) did excellently. I will not mention everybody because I cannot remember everybody’s constituency, but I will do my best. People have taken the opportunity to celebrate wonderful things in the country, and the wonderful people who saw a glass ceiling and jumped higher. It has been wonderful to be part of it.
People also did not shy away from the difficult things that we must do. I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North East Hampshire (Alex Brewer), as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (John Grady), who both took the opportunity to talk about some really difficult things. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Dr Tidball) for her powerful testimony. She is somebody I always enjoy listening to in the Chamber, and I thank her for her contribution today.
The debate today serves many of those purposes. It gives us the opportunity to celebrate what is great, but also to talk about where our society and systems have failed women for far too long, and unfortunately, that is my role today. I want to raise a way in which the system has let down far too many people for far too long. I am talking about the crimes of Mohamed al-Fayed. I am specifically talking about his crimes, because I do not want to talk about him. Today is about the proud survivors who have done all they can to bring his crimes to light.
Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, was a sexual predator. He trafficked and sexually abused hundreds of women over decades with near complete impunity. Well over 400 survivors have already come forward, and every day, more women take the brave decision to do so. Yesterday, the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) powerfully described al-Fayed as Britain’s Epstein. It is a characterisation that she and I have heard many times from survivors, as we co-chair the all-party parliamentary group for the survivors of Fayed and Harrods. It is good to see another of our officers here, the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam).
The scale of the crimes committed by this predator—I will not call him a man, because real men respect women—is staggering, but it is a mistake to think that this is the work of one bad human. Al-Fayed was supported by a network of enablers. He died having escaped justice, but there are scores of people who can and must be held to account. They include employees who identified, groomed and trafficked women for abuse; security staff who harassed and intimidated survivors into silence; lawyers who churned out non-disclosure agreement after non-disclosure agreement, while nobody thought to do anything about it; doctors who performed invasive medical exams and reported—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)
Order. I apologise for interrupting the hon. Gentleman, but as there is one live civil case, may I encourage him to exercise caution in what he says? It is perfectly okay to say anything about Mr al-Fayed, who is dead.
Dave Robertson
Thank you for your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. That is really important, because there are some ongoing cases; I will talk about the Metropolitan police in a minute.
It is clear that we must do better. For far too long, survivors have been ignored. That cannot and must not continue. I am really grateful to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, who is set to meet survivors very soon, and I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment yesterday to meeting survivors. It has taken far too long to get to this stage, but I am glad to see that things are finally starting to move.
I have had the privilege of meeting dozens of women who have taken the very brave step of disclosing their experiences to parliamentarians and people they have never met before. Their tenacity and strength has been fundamental to driving this agenda forward and making these recent advances. I am very grateful to all survivors, as I am sure everybody in the APPG is, but we must never take the trust that they have placed in us for granted.
The APPG ran a consultation with survivors, and we are really pleased that we have had dozens and dozens of responses to it, because we are clear that there is a huge network of people who have been wronged in so many ways by so many systems. It is astonishing how almost every time we have a meeting, there is something else. The scale of the failings cuts right across civil society and enormous parts of the state, and a huge amount needs to be done to recompense these people who have been so poorly served for so long.
I thank the Survivors Trust, which has been working with the APPG, and which provided invaluable support to ensure that we are working in a safe way, bearing in mind the trauma that survivors have suffered. In the coming months, I am eager to work with Members across this House and the other place, and anybody who wants to be involved, to make sure we build up a drumbeat of evidence about the scale of these crimes.
Wendy Chamberlain
The hon. Member is rightly and powerfully talking about the testimony of survivors. I join him in thanking the Survivors Trust, which has given us such invaluable support as we navigate managing a very difficult APPG. I want to mention two amazing women: our researchers, Kathryn and Jessie, who keep us right, keep us grounded, and have done a huge power of work, while we establish how we will take the APPG and the secretariat forward.
Dave Robertson
I am thankful to the hon. Member for mentioning Jessie and Kathryn, who act as the secretariat in a difficult space. They do that in and around other busy jobs. It is clear to me and the hon. Member that without their hard work, we would not have been able to do this. [Interruption.] They are far too good.
We are regularly reminded by survivors that for far too long, parts of their story, and often their entire story, was ignored. We are clear that things need to change and to move quickly. One of the things that comes up most regularly is the police investigation. I am glad that the Met, along with forces in Scotland and France, are investigating. The Met has now confirmed that it is interviewing suspects on suspicion of trafficking. That is vitally important, because survivors regularly bring up that the issue was not being taken seriously enough, and I am very glad that it now is. That focus is vital to maintaining what trust is left between survivors and the Met, but survivors still need reassurance that the force truly grasps the scale of the issue, and is truly working on this as fast as it can.
A frustration often raised with us is that the updates from the Met appear to be, “We will give you another update in three months.” That update ends up being, “There will be another update in three months.” Three months is not a short time, and when that statement is made a third, fourth or fifth time, it undermines people’s trust that things will ever come to a head, and that justice will happen.
I thank all Members who have spoken about al-Fayed’s crimes in this Chamber. A number of people have done so, in various ways. There are all those who joined the APPG, and all those who have spoken to me about the subject. It has been a real learning curve for me over the last year or so. It has been challenging for me; that is not to say that it is not more challenging for other people. I have appreciated people coming to me and showing trust. I want to repay that, as time goes by, and to move things forward for them.
A few Members have mentioned that the themes for this International Women’s Day have been rights, justice and action. We can see that this predator took rights away from far too many people; they deserve justice, and it is time for action to get justice delivered.
Commonwealth Day 2026
Dave Robertson Excerpts(3 weeks ago)
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Adam Jogee
I will, and I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman. I am glad he has found his voice. He was losing it earlier on today, and I am grateful to him for his intervention. From Devon to Newcastle-under-Lyme and up to north Yorkshire, he is right that we want to ensure that we hold on to not just that community spirit, but an understanding of what went before us and how we also ensure we do not fall back into the battles that we were able to win in previous years.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the Commonwealth played a very important role in advancing the global cause of human dignity. The Singapore declaration of 1971 set out the recognition of racial prejudice and discrimination as an “evil of society”. This was followed by the Harare declarations of 1991, signed in the land of my father’s birth, which committed the Commonwealth to strengthen its ability to promote and protect democracy in member states.
The Commonwealth offers so much more, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) alluded to when he prematurely intervened on my speech, in the arts, culture, sport, education, health and other spheres. And while I speak of the historical significance of the Commonwealth, we must also recognise that it is a living network with immense potential.
Dave Robertson
I thank my hon. Friend and county colleague for giving way. I am listening intently because we are hearing of many of the wonderful things about the Commonwealth and much of what we have spoken about has been about the past and our shared sacrifice and the real history that we should celebrate. But as we look forward, will he join me in offering the best of luck to all competitors in the Commonwealth games this summer in Glasgow?
Adam Jogee
My hon. Friend from Lichfield in Staffordshire raises an excellent point. I am looking forward to him competing one day in the Commonwealth games when they are held in Lichfield—
Adam Jogee
I would bet on you, brother.
But in all seriousness, my hon. Friend raises an important point. The Commonwealth games is just one example of how the Commonwealth brings people together, and he and I will be cheering on team GB together as they do well. In the latter—excuse me, Madam Deputy Speaker, my hon. Friend threw me there with his excitement at taking part in the tug of war in the Commonwealth games one day. The theme of this year’s Commonwealth Day is
“unlocking opportunities together for a prosperous Commonwealth”,
reminding us of the opportunities that stand before us. It is a massive regret that the Commonwealth is currently underutilised. It is underfunded and does not get the recognition it deserves by member states and its leaders. It needs meaningful support and a greater sense of direction to make it the useful network for the contemporary world we all live in.
That is particularly important given the fraying relations across the globe. With the aggression of hostile states like Russia and China, we face a period of acute geopolitical uncertainty. The Commonwealth has a unique opportunity to bring together nations that share a commitment to mutual respect and the rule of law. The Commonwealth makes a unique contribution to international relations, as it is an association built on dialogue, where large and small states are given an equal voice at the table. It also offers the opportunity to make progressive change. The Commonwealth already supports programmes focused on advancing women’s rights, expanding access to quality education and tackling the climate crisis. We use Commonwealth Day 2026 to recognise and celebrate that, because the Commonwealth must not be a symbolic institution: it must be a practical network that promotes progressive ideas across the world.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Mid and South Pembrokeshire (Henry Tufnell) noted, reducing barriers to trade between member states could deliver significant benefits for my constituents, and yours too, Madam Deputy Speaker.