Middle East

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I am reluctant to pass comment on the deliberations of other legislatures. The hon. Member referred to a number of European Union countries; as I am sure he knows, they have not taken steps on trade, as that is a European Union competence. They are discussing whether they might review their association agreement with Israel, but they have not yet done so. I am not in a competition, but I think any reasonable observer would say that the UK has gone further than the EU on these matters.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Minister for engaging with me and a group of my constituents, young people and cross-party faith leaders on this issue, which continues to come up with my constituents. This week, one of my constituents wrote to me about the flotilla, outlining that peaceful volunteers were seized in international waters, which is an act explicitly prohibited under international law. I therefore welcome the Minister’s condemnation of the Israeli Government’s horrific and disgraceful actions, which we have all seen. We know that staff are working really hard to get the British nationals concerned home. He is correct in saying that we would not have needed the flotilla if Israel was allowing vital humanitarian aid to get through to the Palestinians who are in so much need.

The Minister can see the frustration of hon. Members from across the House, including the right hon. Members for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse), and for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard), and my hon. Friends the Members for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald), and for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy). We want to help the Minister, but we are concerned that although we come back here time and again, we do not see meaningful action that says to the people perpetrating these acts, “Enough is enough.” Every life is valuable, and every life matters; we cannot sit back and watch what is happening with impunity. What more can the Minister do, through his good offices, to say: enough is enough?

[Mr Falconer]

I thank my hon. Friend for the question, and for welcoming me to her constituency recently to discuss this. We will continue to take every step we can in recognition of the seriousness of the situation.

Occupied Palestinian Territories: Genocide Risk Assessment

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) for securing this important debate. Like many Members, I have received many emails from my constituents, and I speak today to give a voice to their concerns.

It is difficult to put into context the sheer scale of death and destruction that we have seen in Gaza over the last two years. We all know the figures: one in every 33 people has died since the start of the assault, and over 90% of homes have been damaged. As the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) highlighted, behind the statistics are real human stories. We have heard from doctors in Gaza who have been operating without anaesthetic and performing emergency C-sections on women without painkillers, and there has been a rapid increase in child mortality. We have heard of children who have been shot by snipers not once, but twice. It is sometimes easy for us to become desensitised to what we are seeing, but we must not stop calling it out.

The world-respected peace charity Doctors Without Borders has been banned from operating in Gaza and the occupied west bank following its refusal to hand over a list of its staff. What does it mean if lifesaving organisations that carry out work in war zones are being banned? The UK must be very clear about this. As a signatory to the genocide convention, we have a legal obligation to call out and prevent genocide, as do the other 153 states that ratified the treaty. For the treaty to be effective, and for us to stop not just this but future genocides, we must speak with one voice. We must listen when the United Nations tells us that

“Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

[Mr Dhesi]

I thank my hon. Friend, who is a Select Committee Chair, for giving way in this important debate. As she points out, one in every 33 people in Gaza has been killed and one in every 14 has been injured. Does she agree that the sheer colossal scale of the assault on the Palestinian people demonstrates the mass and indiscriminate nature of the action, and indicates a clear risk of international law violation and genocide?

[Florence Eshalomi]

I thank my hon. Friend for making that important intervention. I think that is what we are all trying to get at, and Members from right across the House want answers on that.

It is imperative to listen and act when such respected bodies speak with one voice. It is vital to our ability to stop future genocides. Genocide is not something we can recognise only when it is politically convenient; we must call it out, without fear or favour, whenever and wherever it is occurring. What we are seeing in plain sight in Gaza meets the definition of genocide. I urge the Minister to listen to the powerful voices from across the House—in the way he has listened to us on the many occasions when he meets us to hear about our constituents’ concerns—because there must be a reckoning for what is happening before our eyes, and history will judge us for anything less.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Andrew George to speak for two minutes.

Iran

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The right hon. Member will understand that I cannot pre-empt the proper proscription processes that take place, or the use of future legislation in decisions that need to be taken by the Home Office and the Home Secretary, but I hope that I have conveyed to him that this is something I feel very strongly about. We need this legislation in place because of the nature of the complex and hybrid threats we face.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for her statement. It is good for us as a united House to send the strongest condemnation of what we are seeing—the little we are seeing; we know there is a lot more. She mentioned support for British nationals. Many of my constituents have contacted me, including one who said,

“In our household my partner is Iranian… I have seen the fear in her and her family, which I really understand given their experience… she fears for her family back home and—as a family here in Lambeth—it will mean the world if things change for the better…My son could then visit the country of his mother’s birth without fear of abduction.”

They equally want the mass shootings against the protesters to stop. The Foreign Secretary outlined additional sanctions. Will she ensure that those sanctions hit the Iranian authorities responsible for this brutal violence instead of the innocent protesters who are trying to get their points across?

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the number of British citizens who have Iranian family who are deeply worried about their safety, and about the Iranian citizens who live lawfully here and have done so for a long time who have also been targeted by the Iranian regime. I can assure her that the UK does not sanction food or medicines, and we make targeted decisions to ensure that the sanctions focus on those responsible for the damage as opposed to ordinary people.

Sudan: Humanitarian Situation

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Elmore]

As I have set out to the House, there is no evidence in recent reporting of UK weapons or ammunition being used in Sudan.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Minister for responding and I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing this important urgent question. It is important for us to keep the focus on Sudan. Islamic Relief recently held an exhibition in my constituency entitled “Are your eyes on Sudan?” I am sure the organisation would be ready to welcome and host the Minister to show him the range of images and pictures. I attended a similar exhibition earlier this year, hosted by my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) and organised by Waging Peace, which included images drawn by children of their parents, brothers and sisters being raped. Rape is being used as a weapon of war in this conflict. Will the Minister set out how we are working with our international partners to stamp that out, and how we are ensuring that vital humanitarian aid gets to the vulnerable women and children who are caught up in this horrific conflict?

[Chris Elmore]

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the most horrific element of this conflict. It appears that sexual violence against women and girls, and in some cases boys, is increasingly a part of all conflicts across the globe. We have utterly condemned the significant escalation of conflict-related sexual violence throughout Sudan at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council and via two joint statements of the International Alliance on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. I would be glad to come and see the exhibition. I have seen some of the imagery and it is genuinely distressing, but it is important that we keep a focus on the Sudanese people, as they are the victims of this horrific conflict.

Ambassador to the United States

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Tuesday 16th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the many victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s appalling abuse. For many of them, this story is not a political one; it is a personal one. No one could fail to be moved by listening to the brother and sister on the news this Sunday in their first interview in the UK, with the void that family will now feel from their loss. Let us not detract from them and probably the many more victims who still have not come forward but are caught up in this scandalous and horrific abuse.

I will keep my remarks short. I have recently returned from a trade envoy visit to Nigeria. What struck me on that visit was the hard work and dedication of our civil servants. I met the British deputy high commissioner. All our diplomats working across many missions in many countries do not make the headlines, but they are representing the UK with distinction week in, week out. I know that is replicated across many countries, including the deputy ambassador in Washington, who has taken over from Lord Mandelson. He has been described as a “highly regarded diplomat”, so we wish him well in his temporary role.

The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), rightly highlighted a number of important questions. I hope that the Government will be listening.

[Apsana Begum]

My hon. Friend will be aware that I am listed in the House as an independent, not for matters relating to conduct or duty of candour, but for voting with my conscience to scrap the two-child limit—a policy also supported by the former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Children’s Commissioner. My suspension from the Labour Whip was applied over a year ago, within minutes of my vote. Does she agree that while I and other Members, including the Mother of the House, appear to be held to one standard, Lord Mandelson appears to be held to another?

[Florence Eshalomi]

I thank my hon. Friend for making her point. I think about the amount of abuse that many parliamentarians in this Chamber sadly face—particularly black and minority ethnic Members—just for their mere existence. I know about the horrific domestic abuse that my hon. Friend has faced, and I hope that, with time, the Labour leadership will look at some of the issues around suspension. She will know that I am not privy to that, but I know that many of us continue to raise these issues with the leadership.

I will finish by highlighting some of the many questions that I hope the Minister will respond to. The key question that many people are asking, including many of my constituents, is about the recruitment process going forward. Will the Minister—the Foreign Secretary is not here—assure the House that the recruitment process will be strengthened so that in future our ambassadors will bolster the standing of our civil servants on the global stage?

[Mr Speaker]

We come to the leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Qatar: Israeli Strike

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I am grateful for the kind words from the right hon. Gentleman, and indeed for those I heard from the Labour Back Benches. I am continuing in my role and look forward to appearing before the House in the usual way. He is right to emphasise not just the important statements from the UK and our western allies, but the important commitments that have been made—particularly in July but since then as well—by Qatar, Egypt, Turkey and a range of other states, which have a real role to play in mediating the immediate pressures and in trying to end up in, as he says, the more permanent ceasefire that we want to see.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Minister for outlining the strongest condemnation of the attacks and the blatant disregard for Qatar’s sovereignty. I refer the House to my registered interests, as I visited Qatar last year and spoke to Ministers there. I saw how diligently they are working, day in and day out, to secure the ceasefire and the hostages, and to get that urgent aid in. Does the Minister share my view that Qatar’s role in mediating this conflict will be blown into jeopardy by the recent attack, and will he ensure that the Prime Minister continues to condemn this attack when he meets the Israeli President later this week?

Middle East

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I cannot agree with what the right hon. Gentleman has said, save for his remarks that the hostages must be released.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I want to gently point out to the Foreign Secretary that the reason so many of us are here is that we have been waiting a long time for this statement. With the situation unfolding, as many colleagues have said, our constituents continue to write to us. Last week, Save the Children held a photo exhibition in Parliament in partnership with Choose Love and the photographer Misan Harriman—I should declare that he is the chair of the Southbank Centre, which is in my constituency. I want to read a clip from that exhibition. A question next to one of the pictures asked:

“If you had one superpower, what would it be and why?”

The answer of the young girl in the photo was:

“the ability to change events in order to help my country to become free and help my children live in a safe environment like the rest of the children in the world”.

We are seeing children being killed while trying to access vital food and aid. We must ask ourselves: what more can we be doing? We are seeing children malnourished and starving. I ask the Foreign Secretary: where is the real action from this Government to stop that, so that more children can live?

[Mr Lammy]

I hear the strength of my hon. Friend’s conviction and views when she asks for more action. We are taking action—we have taken action every single day in office. British taxpayers are funding the alleviation of suffering. Is it enough? Have we brought this war to an end? We have not brought it to an end. I have to tell my hon. Friend that the UK will be unable to do that unilaterally, which is why we are working with partners internationally. I have I have done that every single day in office. Me raising my voice will not bring this war to an end. I lament that and I regret that. But am I sure that the UK Government are doing everything in our power? Yes, I am.

Middle East

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

That is the central question. What I have found is inflexibility, as well as a failure to face the seriousness with which the international community are looking at this question and to accept both that we have moved on from the joint comprehensive plan of action, which the Iranians pulled out of back in 2019, and that the focus now is on zero enrichment. Maybe they can have a civil nuclear capability, but it would have to be heavily monitored and would need some sort of international regime in locus with it. They have to face that seriousness now at this point.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement. He said that the whole House will have in their thoughts the many civilians impacted by this fighting. I have in my thoughts the many protesters who took to the streets after the brutal and tragic killing of Mahsa Amini in September 2022. We saw protesters come forward and stand up against the brutal regime, and we saw people being mutilated. The last 20 years of intervention have shown that war and wider escalation will not help these people; it will not help the ordinary Iranians who are suffering under this regime. I have received many emails from my constituents, one of which said:

“The priority should be to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the conflict, not supply weapons to either side of the conflict, and further, to support the facilitation of aid to civilians impacted by the war”.

Can the Foreign Secretary assure me that the UK will not act immediately to follow any military action and that we will urge the US and Israel to de-escalate and avoid targeting innocent civilians?

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning Mahsa Amini—a young woman who was imprisoned in Iran because of her appearance and then killed in police custody. Some 20,000 people, many of them protesters, were thrown into jail as a result, and 500 lost their lives—effectively murdered. That is the regime we are talking about, and my hon. Friend is quite right to remind the House of that. On diplomacy, I refer her to the statements I have previously made about our position on it.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

As this House has heard from me before, the question that we assessed in relation to international humanitarian law was whether there a real risk of a breach of IHL. That was the assessment we made when we first entered government. That is a considerably lower bar than the questions to which the hon. Member refers. We continue to make those assessments, which cover the entirety of international humanitarian law. We have updated the House on that initial assessment, which is at a rather lower bar than she is suggesting, and the assessment broadly remains in place. We will not provide further updates, but if the position changes, I will be sure to return to the House.

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I appreciate the Minister coming back to the Chamber, but as he can see from the strength of numbers here, this is an issue that will not go away.

The Minister just outlined to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, that we are measuring this in hours and days, not weeks and months. There is only one kidney dialysis unit left in Gaza, and the World Health Organisation reports that the number of machines has decreased, with just 27 left in northern Gaza. My late mum had renal failure. She was on dialysis three times a week. It is not hours and days; it is minutes, Minister. People are literally surviving or dying within minutes.

Many people—women and children—are still buried under rubble. A number of us have spoken about the lack of aid going in, and the fact that aid is being used as a weapon of punishment. What more do we need to say for us to see concrete and more visible action from this Government? We are getting emails from our constituents. We need to see an end to some of the weapons going through, a process which the UK is still supporting. We need clearer guidance on sanctions, because Israel is not listening to us.

[Mr Falconer]

I recognise that when we talk in this Chamber about aid restrictions, it can seem like an abstract concept. My hon. Friend is right about what that looks like, person to person. There are terrible shortages of all kinds of desperately needed items that preserve life and dignity, and nothing about the last few days indicates that the new aid measures are doing anywhere near enough to try to avert that tragedy. We not only make our own assessments, but pay careful heed to the assessments of others. I was a diplomat before. The International Committee of the Red Cross is a sober organisation that is not prone to strong statements, and the statement that it has made in recent days about the conditions in Gaza is sobering reading. We are under no illusions about the urgency and the gravity of the situation. I was pleased to be with the Foreign Secretary on 20 May when he announced further measures. We have been clear that further measures will come. We are trying, as the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) has asked us, to persuade the Israelis to change course. If they do not, we will return to this House.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Florence Eshalomi Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I noted reports today of deep frustration in the US Administration in relation to what they are seeing. Certainly, President Trump has said that this war is just going on too long, and I think he said that again last week on his own visits to the middle east. I note the right hon. Gentleman’s tweets and that he has been raising these issues. Is he as concerned as I am about the position of his Front Bench?

[Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall and Camberwell Green) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement. I agree that January provided a small window and glimmer of hope—hope for the innocent civilians who have continued to be bombed for many months; hope for the innocent hostages, who just want to be reunited with their families; hope that was withered away by the Netanyahu Government, who broke that ceasefire. The Foreign Secretary is right that the world is watching; it is also watching us in the UK Parliament. The UK is legally bound to prevent acts of genocide. Does he agree that there must be clear and tangible consequences for Israel if it continues to have blatant disregard for international law and to use food and aid as weapons of punishment?

[Mr Lammy]

It is because of those very same issues, and my concern that the denial of essential humanitarian assistance to a civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching international humanitarian law, that I suspended arms back in September. I want us to get back to a ceasefire; I want us to get back to diplomacy. There cannot be a role for Hamas, but there can never be a role for using food as a tool of war.