Middle East

Debate between David Chadwick and Yvette Cooper

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I agree with my hon. Friend that the closure of the strait of Hormuz is having an impact on oil across the world, as it is on fertiliser, including for sub-Saharan Africa. Some states, according to their level of dependency on different supply chains, are particularly heavily affected by that impact on the global economy. We are closely monitoring which countries are affected and directly raising that with the World Bank and other organisations, while making sure that our official development assistance and aid support reflect those issues. On Sudan, we continue to work closely with the international community and we will be having further such meetings shortly, because this continues to be the most horrendous humanitarian crisis and we need that international energy around Sudan.

[David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)]

The Foreign Secretary will know that the ongoing violence continues to take a horrific toll on civilian populations across Lebanon, Gaza and the wider region. Given our legal obligations under the strategic export licensing criteria, what assessment have the Government made of the risk of UK-supplied components being used in violations of international humanitarian law? Will the Government publish those assessments so that they can be properly scrutinised? Will they now take the decisive step to halt all arms exports to Israel?

[Yvette Cooper]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that we make ongoing assessments. We take immensely seriously our obligations relating to strategic export licences under international humanitarian law and ensure that assessments continue to be made. That is one of the reasons we suspended arms exports to Israel in a series of areas soon after this Government came to office—it was exactly because we took that so seriously—and, as I understand it, why we also published legal advice at that time.

Arctic Security

Debate between David Chadwick and Yvette Cooper

Monday 19th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The job of Government is to pursue the UK national interest and build alliances to work with our allies both in the US and in Europe to promote the UK’s prosperity, our security and our values. We do that in a serious, hard-headed way, and not in the way that, unfortunately, the Liberal Democrats have taken.

[David Chadwick (Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe) (LD)]

To say the very least, Donald Trump’s actions in Greenland and the related sanctions on the UK are not befitting of a trustworthy ally. Does the Foreign Secretary now accept that President Trump does not respond to weakness, and that, as Canada has shown, we must stand firm against this bullying behaviour and, as the Liberal Democrats have argued for months, work more closely with our EU allies?

[Yvette Cooper]

Again, I would say that our strength, security and prosperity depend on things such as the NATO alliance, in which we work closely with our North American allies—the US and Canada—and our European allies. That strong relationship, and the fact that the UK works so strongly at the heart of that relationship, as opposed to rejecting one side or another, is what makes us stronger.