Oral Answers to Questions

John Milne Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ed Miliband]

I am glad that my hon. Friend has raised this case, because we are obviously deeply concerned about the denial of entry to the west bank to two Members of Parliament and, I believe, one Member of the Scottish Parliament. Of course, we have raised this issue with the Israeli authorities and been in touch with those MPs to offer assistance. More broadly, it is very important that as Members of this House go about their business—not just in the UK, but internationally—they have free access, so that they can do their duties to this House.

[John Milne (Horsham) (LD)]

The Government have declared the occupation unlawful, and their measures on settlements depend on reliable evidence of what is happening on the ground. In April, the Foreign Office unit that tracked potential breaches of international law by Israel was closed because of cuts, with the work said to pass to a “different team”. Which team now does that work, and how many officials does it have?

[Ed Miliband]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that that work carries on. We have excellent civil servants who work on all these issues, including potential breaches of international humanitarian law, and we take these issues incredibly seriously as a Department and as a Government.