Business of the House

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 20th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I can absolutely identify with what my hon. Friend describes because I have had many similar issues in my constituency. I know that there are systemic problems in Royal Mail to do with staff morale and systems that it uses, which mean that people do not get a service that they can rely on. I advise my hon. Friend to raise that directly with Royal Mail—and perhaps with the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne), as I did on behalf of my constituents, because the Committee holds regular accountability hearings with Royal Mail.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

May I, on behalf of my party, offer my condolences to the shadow Leader of the House on the loss of his dad? My dad died 10 years ago, and there is not a day when I do not think about him. I am sure the hon. Member will be the same.

The Chinese Communist party’s long-term strategy for Tibet through to 2049 involves tightened rules for religion, in order to deliberately suppress Tibetan Buddhism and religious identity. The aim is to bring religion totally under the control of the state, to ensure that religious views and feelings are supplanted by loyalty to Chinese cultural nationalism. Will the Leader of the House ask the Foreign Secretary to commit to raising with counterparts in China the urgent need for additional protections to safeguard the human right to freedom of religion or belief, and will she ask the Foreign Secretary to ensure that these concerns remain central to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s diplomatic engagements with China?

[Lucy Powell]

Those issues absolutely remain central to our diplomatic relations. The Foreign Secretary and the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the hon. Member for Hornsey and Friern Barnet (Catherine West), are here, and they will have heard the hon. Gentleman’s question. We stand firm on human rights; we make that very clear in our discussions with China, and with anybody else.