Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Patricia Ferguson]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to talk about the heroism, frankly, of people like Dr Mamode. I recall that, when showing us a short video from his video diary, he pointed out that the noise in the background was the noise of drones. Medical staff are not exempt from these attacks, nor are civilian people who are there helping with the humanitarian effort. So, we do have to speak about that bravery.

To have someone like Dr Mamode, who has experienced that horror at first hand, who has given up his own time to try to help and who clearly despairs, was something that I do not think any of us who were present will ever forget. For me, it was the cold calculation of using machines to kill children, as though it was some kind of warped video game, that was the most disturbing aspect of Professor Mamode’s presentation, and which made those statistics that I spoke about earlier mean a great deal.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an incredibly powerful speech. We also heard evidence from a Médecins Sans Frontières medic who reported similar atrocities being experienced. Last week, international lawyers said that this had gone beyond the realms of self-defence by Israel. On the unilateral move the Knesset has made to stop the United National Relief and Works Agency’s activity in Gaza, how does my hon. Friend think we as a Government can respond to that?

[Patricia Ferguson]

My hon. Friend makes a very valid point that I was just about to come to, so it is very timely. I think our Government have to work very hard with the international community to try to find a way—and hard it will be—to bypass the Israeli Government and ensure that we manage to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. We already know that some of the aid convoys have been disrupted in recent times since the Knesset decision, and we have to find ways of getting that aid in. The aid is there, but it is being stopped, it is being looted and it is being prevented from getting to those who need it.

Gaza and Lebanon

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

I share the hon. Lady’s concern about the impacts of the previous Government’s approach to financing overseas development. During a turbulent period, we saw in-donor refugee costs spiral out of control and eat up parts of the aid budget, which I have been very concerned about, and the Government are determined to deal with the situation.

When it comes to support for Lebanon, we are determined to do what we can with other countries and international organisations to support those in need. That has led to the announcement of £5 million for UNICEF, which was an early announcement to make sure that we were pre-positioning the support that, unfortunately, has now become necessary. In addition to that, we have announced £10 million for Lebanon to respond to the lack of shelter and reduced access to clean water, hygiene and healthcare.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

I understand that the Minister is in a very difficult position, and I also understand that a huge amount of work is going on behind the scenes to try to make progress in getting towards a ceasefire. However, she has heard Members of different parties say that the current action is not enough. The consistent, egregious breaches of international law by a supposed ally cannot be allowed to continue unfettered. We have to have a more detailed response from the UK and its allies, as we did when there were breaches of international law against UNIFIL. Will the Minister commit to coming back to this House with a statement on what actions will be taken to send a clear message to Israel that it is engaging in unacceptable behaviour?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making those points. Regardless of which Benches Members sit on, I do not think there will be anyone in this House who is not deeply concerned about the situation impacting on people in Gaza—particularly northern Gaza—and Lebanon. Of course, we are now seeing the conflict impact on people who fled from Syria to Lebanon, so this is a very dire situation. The UK Government will do all that we can to de-escalate and to secure the ceasefires that are so desperately needed, and we would be more than happy to come back to the House to discuss these matters and our activity. We know how important these issues are to many of us and, indeed, many of our constituents.

Education and Opportunity

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

We take the work of the pay review body extremely seriously, but the previous Government did not act responsibly in that regard. They sat on the report, and then they called an election. I understand the frustrations that school leaders and teachers are experiencing, but as my hon. Friend knows, we are moving as quickly as we can on this important issue, and the Chancellor will set out our position before the end of the month. We understand the importance of getting this right. Let me reiterate, once more, our thanks to our brilliant teachers and support staff for their work during this academic year.

We are putting education back where it belongs, at the heart of change. After years at the margins under the Conservatives, after years of ministerial merry-go-rounds, after years of opportunity for our children being treated as an afterthought, education is back at the forefront of national life. I know the power of education to transform lives, because I lived it. Standards were my story, and now I want standards to be the story for every child in the country, not just in some of our schools but in all our schools. I want high and rising standards for each and every child, but for 14 long years that has not been the story in our education system.

I think often of children born in the months after the Labour party last won an election, some 19 years ago. They entered school in September 2010, in the first autumn in which Conservative Members served as Ministers. By then the damage had already begun. Labour’s ambitious Building Schools for the Future programme had already been cancelled, and that was storing up problems for the decades ahead. As the years went by, those children saw opportunity stripped away. They saw not just resources drained from their childhood, but also hope. They saw the children’s centres they had attended being closed by the hundred. They saw falling investment in the school buildings in which they learned, and in the staff who taught and supported them. They saw a change in the support for children with special educational needs—a situation that, in a moment of unusual candour, my predecessor, the former MP for Chichester, described as “lose-lose-lose”, though she did almost nothing about it. A generation of children in social care were falling further and further out of sight.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

My right hon. Friend has mentioned the inequalities experienced by children with special educational needs and disabilities. What is she able to say about what we will do, and the difference that we will make to their lives?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I recognise the concern expressed by my hon. Friend, and by Members throughout the House, about that important issue. I will say more about it later in my speech, but let me say now that not for a second do I underestimate the challenge that we face. I give my hon. Friend this commitment: I want to ensure that we deliver a better system for children, families and schools—one that is a long way from the broken and adversarial system that too many people experience at the moment.

Young people in unregistered schools were missing out on not just the education but the childhood that they should have had, and as that generation grew older, the Government response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic made it clear to them that they were, quite simply, an afterthought. Pubs were reopening to punters before schools welcomed back children. Examination grading was first a farce and then a fiasco. We had a Government who forgot almost altogether about further education, and saw apprenticeship starts tumble year after year.

Earlier this month, the people of this country turned the page on that Government and that era. They turned to Labour, and to the hope, which drives us and so many who work in education, that tomorrow can be better than today, and that our best days lie not behind us but ahead of us. They turned to Labour in the belief—today a distinctively Labour belief—that the role of Government is not merely to administer, but to transform, and to deliver for all our children the freedom to achieve, thrive, succeed and flourish, which has been withheld from so many of them for so long.

--- Later in debate ---

[Debbie Abrahams]

Does the shadow Education Secretary accept the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ recent report? It says that although we have seen an improvement in average attainment, there remain educational inequalities, particularly for children on free school meals, children from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled children. We have not seen any improvements, and the educational inequalities are stark

[Damian Hinds]

The hon. Lady, as ever, makes important points. It was the mission of Conservative Governments from 2010 onwards always to pursue two goals: first, to raise attainment overall and, secondly, to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor—between the advantaged and the disadvantaged or those with particular needs. Although those gaps are still too big, there was a decade of progress, as she knows. I think the IFS report that she mentions will almost certainly have said that there was a decade of progress right up until covid. I am afraid that covid struck a blow—[Interruption.] Labour Members may shake their heads, but believe me, covid struck a blow to education right throughout the world, including in our country, and there is yet more—[Interruption.] I think my point stands. There is yet more work to do.

The point I was making before the hon. Lady made her important intervention was that a great deal has been achieved but there are still challenges. In the aftermath of covid, we know that there are particular challenges on the attainment gap and attendance—by the way, those two things are related—but a great deal has been achieved. So my ask of the Government is that, while we acknowledge that they have just won the election with a big majority, we nevertheless ask them to be mindful and careful not to change things just because they can.

Of course, Ministers do not educate children. It is the teachers who educate children, and those great achievements are their achievements, but teachers exist within a framework and a system. There are dedicated teachers not just in England but in Scotland and Wales, but in those two countries we have not seen the same advances that we have seen in England. Indeed, in Wales, with a Labour Administration running education, we have seen declines. We have long had dedicated teachers in England, too, but the fact is that in the Labour years before 2010, England’s results actually declined relative to other countries, even though—some Labour Members may remember this—in new Labour’s target-rich but I am afraid highly gameable environment, it was made to look like the results were all getting better.