Oral Answers to Questions

Kerry McCarthy Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Vicky Foxcroft (Lewisham, Deptford) (Lab)]

6. What diplomatic steps he is taking to help ensure access to Gaza by humanitarian organisations.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

9. What diplomatic steps he is taking with his international counterparts to help open humanitarian corridors in Gaza.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

18. What steps his Department is taking to help ensure the safety of (a) Palestinian and (b) Israeli civilians in the Gaza-Israel conflict.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Mitchell]

The Prime Minister set out yesterday very clearly what our policy is. We are doing everything we can to protect children. British aid is already making a difference by supporting the international relief effort, which is going in through Rafah.

[Kerry McCarthy]

I completely endorse what my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, Deptford (Vicky Foxcroft) just said about the impact on children. Trucks at the Rafah crossing are welcome, but the aid getting through is nowhere near enough to avert humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Fuel is urgently needed for the desalination plants that would ensure drinking water and for the energy generators that would power hospitals, which would prevent huge loss of life. Why is that fuel not being allowed through?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is entirely right that the Rafah crossing is currently the only way we can get food and relief supplies in. Supplies are coming to El Arish, but the number of trucks going through every day is far too small. We will continue to press all the relevant authorities to allow humanitarian support and aid of the type she describes through the Rafah crossing to help those whose circumstances are precisely as she describes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: AMR is the third biggest killer now. Meetings took place at the UN General Assembly, and I was there in April attending an AMR meeting. We will do everything we can, and we are greatly enhanced in our abilities by the presence of Sally Davies, who is an envoy on AMR. I can tell my hon. Friend that this has the absolute attention of the Government.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

T5. Fifty thousand women in Gaza are pregnant, with 5,000 due to give birth now in truly hellish circumstances. If bombing a hospital is, as the Minister just said, a war crime, how would he describe the deliberate withholding of fuel to power those hospitals and keep them working?

[Mr Mitchell]

The hon. Lady is ingeniously asking the same question that she asked earlier. I can tell her that we are doing everything we can to address the issue she has raised. It is as much a concern to us as it is to her, and we will continue to do that.