King’s Speech

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I too pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, and her work as a Minister; I have appreciated the many exchanges we have had across the Chamber. I also welcome the Minister, the noble Earl, Lord Minto, to his post.

I also congratulate the noble Lords, Lord Young and Lord Roberts, on their excellent maiden speeches. We will hear some fantastic contributions from them in the future. I said to the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, that I have not had the opportunity to read many of his books. Unfortunately, I have been focused on reading all three volumes of Chips Channon’s diaries; I have certainly learned a lot about what has gone on in the past in this Chamber.

I have very firmly fixed in my mind my noble friend Lady Kennedy of The Shaws’s reference to the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, as a “keeper”; that is what he is for me.

As my noble friend Lord McConnell said, the world faces huge challenges with inequality, conflict and climate change. More than ever, we need a strong Britain on the world stage. But this Government have left Britain increasingly disconnected from our closest allies, with a tarnished international reputation and reduced influence in the world.

I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Wilson of Dinton, that Labour’s foreign policy will prioritise reconnecting Britain for security and prosperity at home—a confident country, outside the EU but a leader in Europe once again. We will be a reliable partner, a dependable ally in NATO, a leader in development and at the vanguard of climate action. We will drive forward the industries of the future for Britain. With the right priorities, the right partnerships and the right values, Britain can and will thrive.

I turn to the Middle East. I have talked before in the Chamber about the horrors that Hamas committed. I have not seen the films, but I have spoken to the families of people affected. Not only do they have the horror of knowing that their relatives are hostages, but those relatives have had their families murdered, and that has to be at the top of our mind when we consider this issue.

We all have to be determined to hold those people who committed these horrors to account. They cannot be allowed to get away with it. However, we also have to consider the impact in Gaza. We have heard that more than 11,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, and every one of those lives mattered. Two-thirds of the dead are women and children. As the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, said, neither should we forget the UN workers and humanitarian workers who have suffered the same fate. These deaths are shocking and cannot be ignored. The desperate reports from hospitals in northern Gaza, short of fuel and filled with civilians seeking shelter, are truly shocking. All parties must follow international law, acting with necessity, distinction, proportionality and precaution.

Labour supports the independence of the International Criminal Court and recognises its jurisdiction to address the conduct of all parties in Gaza. In the Statement to the other place on Tuesday, which we have not considered but I hope we will cover in this debate, Andrew Mitchell said:

“It is not for Ministers to seek to state where the ICC has jurisdiction; that is for the chief prosecutor. The chief prosecutor has not been silent on this matter, and I am sure he will continue to express his views”.


In response to my right honourable friend David Lammy, who sought clarification on the Government’s position, he said:

“It is not for me to fetter or speak in the place of its chief prosecutor”.—[Official Report, Commons, 14/11/23; cols. 511-13.]


For the sake of clarity, I hope that tonight the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, will confirm very clearly that the UK Government recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction to address the conduct of all parties in Gaza. Previous Prime Ministers have put that in doubt.

Gazans need aid now—medicine, water and fuel. A full, comprehensive and immediate humanitarian pause in the fighting across the whole of Gaza is now necessary to alleviate Palestinian suffering and for Hamas terrorists to release the hostages. The noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, is right: Hamas’s stated aim is to wipe Israel off the map, it committed the most brutal attack on Jews since the Holocaust, and now it is using innocent Palestinians as human shields.

We must not give up on the narrow openings that keep the prospect of peace alive. That means preventing escalation; condemning violence from settlers in the West Bank, which I personally witnessed in May and has continued at pace; condemning rocket attacks on Israel from Iran’s proxies in Lebanon and elsewhere; and creating a future where Gaza is not subject to occupation.

Meanwhile, international diplomacy evolves and the facts on the ground are changing day by day, in relation to both hostages being rescued and Hamas’s capability to carry out attacks like we saw on 7 October. We must move to a full cessation of fighting as quickly as possible. The reality is that neither the long-term security of Israel nor long-term justice for Palestine can be delivered by bombs and bullets. We must seek a path to a political process that leads to two states: a secure Israel and an independent Palestine.

On defence, the gracious Speech says that the UK

“will continue to champion security around the world, to invest in our gallant Armed Forces and to support veterans to whom so much is owed”—

who can disagree? The first duty of any Government is of course to keep our country safe. Labour’s commitment to NATO is unshakeable, and we will continue to steadfastly support military, economic and diplomatic support for Ukraine for as long as it takes. By fulfilling our NATO obligations in full and renewing the nation’s moral contract with our Armed Forces, only Labour will secure Britain’s defences for the future. As my noble friends Lord Coaker and Lord Tunnicliffe, who are with me on the Front Bench, said, the Government have hollowed out our Armed Forces since 2010, and they have cut the British Army to its smallest size since Napoleon. We need to ensure that we have those troops back on the payroll and ensure that we return their morale to make sure that they are fighting fit.

On Ukraine, I reassure everyone that, although there may be a change of Government next year, there will be no change in Britain’s resolve to stand with Ukraine, confront Russian aggression and pursue Putin for his war crimes. One thing that was missing from the gracious Speech—given the Motion that was passed unanimously by the other place—was the need for legislation on the seizure of Russian state assets to repurpose them for the reconstruction of Ukraine. I hope the Minister will be able to reassure us tonight that that legislation will be placed. Not only do we have to make those responsible for this war accountable; we have to make sure that they pay for the reconstruction. We must continue to stand with Ukraine in every aspect that it needs, as my noble friend Lord Adonis said, until it is victorious over Russia in defence of its own territory.

On China and the Indo-Pacific, the noble Earl repeated the Government’s policy on China through their interrelated strands of “protect, align and engage”. Of course, the Intelligence and Security Committee report described the UK’s approach to China as “completely inadequate” and said that Britain was “severely handicapped” in managing future security risks. I assure noble Lords that, in government, Labour will carry out a complete audit of UK-China relations so that we can ensure that the relationship reflects our interests and values and that we can set a consistent strategy for the long term, ensuring that everyone—business, civil society and Governments—fully understands our intentions.

The noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, and the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, were absolutely right to raise the issues around the Taiwan Strait. We want to see a dialogue and peaceful moves to address those issues. We have been clear about our serious concern about China’s increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan and the attempts to intimidate its democratic leaders. Of course, it is important to avoid accidents and miscalculations that raise tension or risk escalation, but these are part of a wider pattern of China becoming more assertive, as we have seen in its actions in Hong Kong and the South China Sea. We have spoken about the repression in Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet, and I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Alton, that it is simply wrong and outrageous that China has brought sanctions against UK parliamentarians for raising these concerns.

I want to conclude by referring to our new Foreign Secretary, the future Lord Cameron. I have on many occasions praised him for one vital legacy of his foreign policy—the way in which he followed on the leadership of Gordon Brown on the millennium development goals, ensuring that the international community focused on the sustainable development goals. Of course, in September, the UN Secretary-General called for a global SDG rescue plan to be met with a co-ordinated response—I hope from the United Kingdom, our international partners, civil society and business. I hope that the future Lord Cameron will be absolutely focused—and I shall certainly be focused on holding him to account.

One issue that I have been particularly concerned about is nutrition. Nutrition financing has been disproportionately impacted by cuts to UK ODA, and there remains a major gender gap on nutrition spending. Some 149.2 million children under five years of age are stunted; 45 million are wasted and nearly 40 million are overweight. More than 1 billion women are experiencing at least one form of malnutrition. By 2050, climate change is predicted to increase the risk of hunger and malnutrition by 20%; 45% of deaths in children under the age of five are linked to malnutrition. This requires action, and on these challenges, while we are at the halfway point of the SDGs, we have a long way to go to meet them. Nutrition is pivotal to achieving SDG 2 on zero hunger, but it also underpins other goals related to health, education, peace, gender equality and poverty. Good nutrition means stronger immune systems and safer pregnancy and childbirth.

Next week, as my noble friend mentioned, sees the publication of the Government’s White Paper on international development at the global food security summit, which I am very pleased to have been invited to and I shall be attending. The summit gives us the chance to put malnutrition back on the global agenda and ensure that the United Kingdom remains in its leadership role. Again, I shall make sure that the future Lord Cameron not only takes that leadership responsibility seriously but delivers on it and on the SDGs.