Oral Answers to Questions
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(5 days, 12 hours ago)
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Gill Furniss (Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr Hamish Falconer)
Israel must immediately allow rapid and unhindered aid into Gaza. The Foreign Secretary raised the humanitarian situation with Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar on Sunday. We recently announced £4 million of further UK humanitarian support for Gazans, and we will continue to urge Israel to lift restrictions on humanitarian aid to allow the UN and other aid organisations to operate safely and independently.
Mr Falconer
The killing of civilians at aid distribution centres in Gaza is horrifying. Israel must fulfil its obligations under international law to ensure unhindered humanitarian assistance. I will not speculate about future sanctions or arms embargoes, but we continue to engage with our partners and will not hesitate to take further action if the Government of Israel do not change course.
Laura Kyrke-Smith
Mussa Abu Darabi is just one of hundreds of Palestinians who have been killed trying to access food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in recent weeks. Fifteen international human rights organisations have now warned that the GHF may face legal consequences for
“aiding and abetting, or otherwise being complicit, in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide.”
Will the Minister join me in condemning the murder of desperate and starving people? What assessment does he make of the GHF’s legality?
Mr Falconer
No one should risk death or injury to feed their family. As I said in this House on 4 June, Israel’s aid delivery measures are inhumane. We will not support any mechanism that endangers civilians. We have continually called on Israel, including most recently on Sunday, immediately to allow the UN and aid partners to safely deliver all types of aid at scale.
Middle East
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(6 days, 12 hours ago)
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Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
I commend the Foreign Secretary for urging calm and restraint at this troubling time. I know that he has been engaging with our European counterparts—notably with France and Germany as the E3—but as the positions of the US and Israel on Iran harden, does he agree that this is the moment when our relationship with Europe as a collective force for diplomacy and peace will be crucial?
Mr Lammy
It was important for the so-called E3—the United Kingdom, alongside Germany and France—working with the EU’s high representative, to make clear our concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the Iranian Foreign Minister and to urge him to come back to diplomacy. All of us were on the phone to him again after the action. Of course there is an important role for Europe, particularly as the custodians of the JCPOA, and because we have a decision to make about whether we will in fact snap back and impose a heavy set of sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply.
USAID Funding Pause
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(2 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Brian Mathew
I completely agree with my hon. Friend, and I will cover many of those points. I find the cut totally indefensible and counterproductive. Apart from the soft power that our aid programme offers, it is a betrayal of principles we hold dear: reducing poverty and assuring global security.
On a personal note, aid cuts hit close to home for me. For much of my career I have worked in international aid, primarily in water, sanitation and hygiene, working to give people across Africa and the developing world access to clean drinking water, safe sanitation and good hygiene. Those simple things are vital to health, survival and prosperity.
According to WaterAid, the UK’s annual budget for WASH has already been cut by approximately 82%, from a high of £206 million per year down to a critical low of just £37 million a year in 2022. Further cuts are likely to this most vital of sectors. Such cuts will hardly dissuade potential refugees from coming to our shores; they may even drive those refugees towards us if life becomes increasingly intolerable as a result of climate change, war and famine.
One impact of USAID cuts is growing hunger. Globally, almost 50% of all deaths among children under five are attributed to malnutrition. The USAID-funded famine early warning system—FEWS NET—the gold standard for monitoring and predicting food insecurity, went offline in January because of Trump’s cuts, leaving organisations without a key source of guidance on where and when to deploy humanitarian aid. At the same time, other USAID cuts have led to feeding programmes themselves coming to an abrupt end. For example, therapeutic feeding centres in Nigeria have been closed, as have community-run kitchens in Sudan, at a time when famine threatens millions in that country. Meanwhile, thousands in Haiti have lost access to nutritional support. We are told that USAID emergency food rations are now rotting in warehouses.
The supply of HIV treatments and medication has been severely disrupted. The UNAIDS executive director has warned that if funding is not replaced, an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths are expected over the next four years. We were likewise warned by a senior World Health Organisation staff member during the recent International Development Committee visit to Geneva that, with AIDS again running rampant, it is likely that drug-resistant variants of tuberculosis will now multiply and become a risk to us all, even in the developed north.
When healthcare systems are hit, sexual and reproductive health is often one of the first casualties.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
The hon. Gentleman is making an excellent speech. I have been in contact with the International Rescue Committee, my former employer, about the impact that the USAID cuts will have on it. It is estimated that the cuts to that agency alone will mean that 280,000 people in Yemen will lose access to primary care, mental healthcare and reproductive healthcare, and 3,000 people in Lebanon will be left without education. That is devastating not just in terms of the humanitarian impact; we need to think about it in terms of our own stability and security. It means diseases left unchecked, which cross borders and become pandemics, and it means young people left without education and opportunity and at risk of further marginalisation and radicalisation. Does he agree with that analysis?
Brian Mathew
I thank the hon. Member for her comments, and I will continue with more figures that emphasise those points.
During the 90-day freeze, an estimated 11.7 million women and girls have been denied modern contraceptive care. The Guttmacher Institute estimates that that will lead to 4.2 million unintended pregnancies and 8,340 women and girls dying from pregnancy and childbirth complications.
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(3 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Mr Falconer
It is a long-standing position that that is for a competent court to determine.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
The approach of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation flies in the face of every established principle of humane and effective aid delivery, as has become quickly apparent. The head of the organisation has resigned and at least 42 Palestinians have been killed—killed—for simply trying to feed their starving families. That is an affront to all of us and to the basic principles of human dignity and respect. Does the Minister agree that there has to be full accountability for these atrocities?
Mr Falconer
My hon. Friend was an aid worker and she understands better than most the vital importance of those principles, not just in the middle east but right across the world. I join her and the Secretary-General in their calls.
Gavi and the Global Fund
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) for introducing the debate. I declare an interest as the former UK executive director of the International Rescue Committee. I will focus on why Gavi and the Global Fund are so critical in humanitarian crises. I also want to be clear about why this issue matters and why the role those organisations play in the world matters.
I am extremely proud of the principled role that UK aid allows us to play, and that British NGOs play, in parts of the world that are riven by conflict, poverty and climate change, where we save lives and prevent future suffering. But this is not just about charity; it is about global stability and security and, in turn, about our own stability and security. When diseases are left unchecked in fragile states, they do not stay contained; they cross borders, they become pandemics, they threaten and harm us all as human beings, and they demand costly emergency responses here in the UK and abroad that could have been prevented through earlier interventions.
I saw at first hand, particularly through the IRC’s partnership with Gavi, how Gavi and the Global Fund work in humanitarian crises. In east Africa, despite insecurity and limitations on humanitarian access making vaccine delivery difficult, the IRC was able to expand vaccine coverage. In 19 months, an IRC-led consortium funded by Gavi and powered by local partners administered 9 million vaccine doses and put nearly 1 million children on the path to full immunisation, including 376,000 zero-dose children. As of January 2025, 96% of the 156 target communities had access to vaccines—before the intervention, only 16% had—and the cost of delivering that was just $4 per person. That shows how, by institutionalising this model of providing doses and funding directly to frontline actors, we can reach people outside of Government control and deliver real impact, even in some of the toughest and most fragile humanitarian settings.
Gaza: UK Assessment
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Mr Falconer
On the very first day I became a Minister, we restored funding to UNRWA, and within weeks we had taken the far-reaching actions that I have described in relation to arms sales. I understand the force of the question, and I understand the feeling of our constituents throughout the country, in my constituency of Lincoln and elsewhere, but let us not pretend that this Government have taken the same steps as the previous Government. We took a series of steps, and we took them quickly and decisively.
I am not suggesting to the hon. Member that what we have done is enough—no one could hear this discussion and think it is enough; no one could have listened to the UN Security Council yesterday afternoon and think it is enough. But there is a difference between saying that there is more to be done and saying that nothing has been done.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
After 70 days of aid being blockaded, we are watching an entirely preventable famine unfold in real time in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Israeli Government’s anti-NGO Bill seeks to restrict the ability of lifesaving humanitarians to operate, and instead militarises aid delivery in violation of international humanitarian law. I thank the Minister for all his efforts and for his challenge on this point, but will he continue to challenge the Israeli Government on it, and does he agree that there has to be accountability?
Mr Falconer
I am familiar with the draft legislation in the Knesset, and we are engaging on the questions it raises.
Kashmir: Increasing Tension
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Mr Falconer
My hon. Friend is a doughty advocate for his constituents in voicing their concerns. The long-standing position of the United Kingdom is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting resolution to the situation in Kashmir, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people. It is not for us to prescribe a solution.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
Like many colleagues in this House, I was appalled by the terrorist attack in Kashmir, and my heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones. What really worries me now is the hatred, threats and incitement we have seen online since the attack, which I know are deeply unsettling for many of my constituents. Does the Minister agree that the incitement of hatred online is completely unacceptable, and can he share what measures the Government are taking to monitor and act against it?
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Visit
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Mr Falconer
My hon. Friend raises important points, and he has a long history of engagement on these issues. The security challenges in the west bank are important and he is right to raise them. I have set out our position on settlements clearly already from the Dispatch Box, and I reiterate that. We are talking to the Palestinian Authority about those practical challenges and the importance of being able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Palestinian security forces to prevent violent disturbances within the areas they control. It is vital that settlements are restrained and that the terrible increase in settlement activity is reduced. It is vital, too, that Israel enables the Palestinian Authority to function effectively, which includes paying salaries, having electricity and all the other basic fundamentals that a nation state would require.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
It was a real honour to join the meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa in Parliament yesterday. I welcome the Minister’s hard work in the signing of the MOU. I desperately want peace for Palestinians and for Israelis, and I was touched by Prime Minister Mustafa’s gracious remarks that the way forward has to be peace for all, dignity for all and justice for all. Does the Minister agree that while we work through the short-term practical considerations of recognising the state of Palestine, we have to keep our eyes on that long-term prize of peace, dignity and justice, and that a state of Palestine is a vital part of that?
Mr Falconer
My hon. Friend is right. Those are the principles for long-term peace for both parties, and that is what we will need to work towards.
London Sudan Conference
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Mr Falconer
The hon. Gentleman asks an important question. Since the conflict began, 3.6 million refugees have fled to neighbouring countries. That of course includes Chad, but also Egypt, South Sudan, Uganda and the Central African Republic. Many of these countries I know well, and I served in South Sudan for the Department for International Development for two years. These are countries with delicate political balances and that have seen recent incidences of severe conflict. What happens in Sudan makes a difference to neighbouring countries. I do not think that what is centrally at issue here is UK aid to Chad. What is centrally at issue is violent displacement from Sudan, and we will remain focused on those questions.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
I commend the Foreign Secretary for co-hosting the conference and for giving this situation the political and diplomatic attention that it warrants. The crisis in Sudan is awful. The UN has warned that
“never in modern history have so many people faced starvation and famine as in Sudan today”.
The UN puts that down to the deliberate starvation tactics by the RSF and the SAF. Can the Minister outline what further measures the Government are taking to end the deliberate obstruction of food aid by the warring parties?
Mr Falconer
The UK condemns the growing body of evidence of serious atrocities being committed against civilians in Sudan. The escalation of violence, killing of civilians, sexual assault of women and restriction of humanitarian access must end. That is why in January the Foreign Secretary visited the Sudan-Chad border and raised awareness of the conflict. It is why we hosted the conference last week and are in regular touch with both the parties themselves and all those with influence, including regional players, the United Nations and major donors. We are trying to do everything we can to ensure that humanitarian access is properly restored.
Israel: Refusal of Entry for UK Parliamentarians
Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts(2 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Mr Falconer
I am conscious of the time. We have expressed our concerns about this incident in the way that I described, and I expect to have further discussions with members of the Israeli Government to that effect.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
I travelled to the west bank in November, and I heard from UN agencies and non-governmental organisations about their international staff being denied entry, restricting their aid efforts. That was alarming enough, but the appalling treatment of our brilliant colleagues is a new low, as it seems that it is not just the support to Palestinians that is being denied, but the right to scrutinise whether that support is getting through. Does the Minister agree that future access to the Occupied Palestinian Territories for aid and scrutiny must be protected?
Mr Falconer
I have spoken already about the importance of the free press, safe travel for journalists and, indeed, parliamentary delegations.