Oral Answers to Questions
Gareth Thomas Excerpts(4 weeks, 2 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Yvette Cooper)
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire as winter weather draws in, while thousands of families do not have proper shelter. This weekend, after more than a year’s delay, we were finally able to get UK-funded tents into Gaza through Kerem Shalom, working with UNICEF. Those tents will provide critical shelter for 12,000 people, but more support is needed, so from today the Government will also match, pound for pound, new donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s middle east appeal over the winter, with an additional £3 million of support through those charities to help the people who are most in need and get support to families in Gaza.
Yvette Cooper
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We are continuing to press to get increased humanitarian aid in. The level of aid is increasing, and as we have seen, we have been able to get the UK-funded tents into Gaza. However, I have seen some of the warehouses in Amman that still hold UK-funded aid—wheat that could feed hundreds of thousands of people—that we need to get into Gaza, which is why we need all the crossings opened.
Gareth Thomas
More than two thirds of Gaza’s children—700,000—are living in tents, and are at high risk of preventable disease. Growing numbers are suffering malnutrition, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The Trump plan called for a minimum of 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza daily, but nothing like that number is yet getting in, so will my right hon. Friend step up the Government’s efforts to secure sustained access to Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and other critical UN humanitarian agencies?
Yvette Cooper
We desperately need to get the humanitarian aid into Gaza. My hon. Friend is right that this provision was part of the 20-point peace plan, and it has widespread support, but it covers just essentials to meet basic humanitarian needs. Shelter, support and healthcare are still needed for families in Gaza. We continue to press not just for the crossings to be reopened, but for the restrictions on aid to be lifted, so that we can get in place the shelter kits, equipment and healthcare support that families need.
Parkinson’s Disease
Gareth Thomas Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)
I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for the way he introduced the debate. Given the time, I will focus on the particular challenges that the Parky charter, which I strongly support, addresses.
Parkinson’s brings additional financial challenges for people with Parkinson’s and their families. In particular, I want to highlight the prescription charges faced by many people with Parkinson’s. England is the only part of the UK where people with Parkinson’s still pay for their prescriptions because the NHS medical exemption list has barely changed since it was created in 1968. To put that in context, that is the year that the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” was the UK’s biggest-selling single, and it was before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Medical knowledge was far behind what it is today, and it was a long time yet before I would be born.
I gently suggest to the Minister that this is a very serious issue. People with Parkinson’s who cannot afford their prescription sometimes reduce their dose or skip medication, risking hospital admission and irreversible damage to their health. Many people with Parkinson’s already hesitate about taking medication—I think of my father, who had Parkinson’s—because they are worried about the side effects or have difficulty accepting their diagnosis. Having to pay for prescriptions simply creates an extra barrier or a reason not to start medication, but taking that medicine can significantly help with the day-to-day management of symptoms, and can prevent falls and hospital admissions.