Venezuela

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Tuesday 6th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

The Prime Minister has an excellent relationship with President Trump, and sometimes that involves challenge and sometimes it does not; that is how relationships work.

On the transition to democracy, the frustrating thing is that Venezuela has the capacity, mechanisms and structures to hold a ballot in a way that is verifiable. The problem was that it did not count ballots properly or publish the results. This is not a situation where there is no infrastructure on which to hold a democratic process; that does exist. How exactly we support that, the timing of it and who leads it—all those questions— I cannot answer as of today, but they are the right questions and they will need to be answered to move forward to the proper democracy that we all want to see.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords, we well understand the difficulties of criticising our close ally, President Trump. However, is there not a real danger that many will now see this as an acquiescence to the rather crude reassertion of the Monroe doctrine of the United States? Is there not a danger also that it will give succour to President Putin when he demands his own sphere of influence in the world? It will certainly be more difficult for all of us to criticise President Putin, given this precedent.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I do not think that is right. I do not have any difficulty in criticising President Putin for his illegal act of launching a full invasion of Ukraine, stealing children from Ukraine, bombing civilians, and destroying infrastructure and energy in the depths of winter. I have no issue complaining about that, and I do not see the moral equivalence between the two events. It is a good thing that Nicolás Maduro is no longer running the country.