Iran-Israel Update

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Together with our allies, we are reviewing the interim findings and are discussing appropriate next steps. Many partner countries have suspended funding to UNRWA after what happened, which was shocking. In the meantime, we are considerably increasing our own aid into the region and welcome the commitments from Israel recently to increase the flow, opening new checkpoints at the port of Ashdod, the Jordan land corridor and Kerem Shalom, but we now want to see those commitments followed through. We all want to see more aid getting in and that will be a focus of our conversations with Israel.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

Mr Speaker, on behalf of myself and your neighbours in Bolton North East, I am very sorry for the loss of your father.

Some 90% of Iranian oil exports go to China. China is increasing in importance in the region. It already trades four times more than the United States with the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, along with Iran. What discussions does the Prime Minister plan on having with his counterpart, Xi Jinping, and with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on resolving an escalation in the conflict in Iran?

[The Prime Minister]

The Foreign Secretary recently spoke to his counterpart on exactly that topic. More broadly, we are discussing with our G7 partners and allies what further measures we can take to deal with the threat, economically, that Iran poses.

Pakistan: Evacuation of Afghans

Mark Logan Excerpts

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I say to the right hon. Gentleman and to all hon. Members who have personal cases to email me as I am happy to take them over. I have been brought in very recently and I will do what I can to get answers in those cases. A lot of cases are not simple—they are not black and white. As everybody across the House knows, I will always be honest about the challenges and we will do everything that we can to look after these people.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

In the interests of impartiality, I will quote from The Guardian, which puts the figure of Afghans currently stranded in UK-funded hotels in Islamabad at 3,000. Indeed, according to reports, those hotels have been raided by Pakistani authorities. What assessment does the Minister make of that figure and of what has been happening? Furthermore, what discussions has he been having with our high commissioner in Pakistan and his opposite number in the Pakistani Government?

[Johnny Mercer]

This is a cross-Government effort, so people from the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office are in contact with the high commissioner in Pakistan every day. We are well aware of this challenge. There are two separate issues here: one is the wider Pakistani policy towards Afghans, which is not part of my work in this space; and the other is that being applied to those who are entitled to be in the UK and have been pre-approved to be in the UK. It is the latter that I am concerned about. We are determined to get assurances on them and we will keep working until we do. I have already made a commitment that if a single one of them is deported back whence they came, I will have failed, but we will make sure that does not happen.

Israel and Gaza

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 23rd October 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The UK is working hard to ensure that humanitarian aid gets to the people who need it, and fuel is one of the things that we are working on.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement today of an extra £20 million in humanitarian aid. Last week, I met a group of senior leaders from my mosques in Bolton. At the very end, a note was passed to me that said, “Can we stop just having words on the two-state solution and actually have some action?” I welcome what the Prime Minister has said, and I recognise that we are in the acute moments of the conflict right now, but—looking to the future—what ideas, international collaboration and leadership will we put in to bring about a two-state solution? Where there is a vacuum, others will fill it.

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right that we need to redouble our efforts and inject fresh energy into demonstrating progress towards that better future. The most immediate thing we can do is ensure that there is a future in Gaza after Hamas that provides Palestinians with the opportunity to live with dignity and security. That is something that we are actively engaged on with our international counterparts.

Israel and Gaza

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 16th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are doing everything we can to support humanitarian efforts, moving aid into the region as quickly as we can. We will continue to have conversations with all our counterparts in the region to make sure that that aid gets there as quickly as humanly possible.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I stand with my constituents in Bolton in condemning the acts of terror committed by Hamas, who have targeted not only innocent adults but, even more barbarically, children. At the onset of the horrific atrocities, the Government rightly reach out their hand to the victims of unspeakable terrorism. Does the Prime Minister agree with me and my constituents that the people of Gaza must be treated fairly, within the bounds of international law, and that we refuse to accept an all-out humanitarian crisis?

[The Prime Minister]

We do support Israel’s right to defend itself and, as a friend, we will continue to call on Israel to take every precaution to avoid harming civilians. We will do everything we can to bring humanitarian support to the people of Gaza as quickly as practically possible.

Resettlement of Afghans

Mark Logan Excerpts

Tuesday 19th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Johnny Mercer]

I will come back to the hon. Member on equivalency in due course. There is an issue with getting the healthcare workers we want to see into the NHS, and we are working on that at the moment. I promised that no one would be sleeping rough at the end of the process, but I never promised that nobody would not apply for homelessness—I cannot force people to live in certain houses. However, I can ensure him that nobody sleeps rough because of this policy or a lack of provision. That target was met, and nobody slept rough.

Of course, I pay tribute to all the local authorities. Some of them did extraordinary stuff during the period. I went on holiday myself, but there were other people on holiday still driving around at 10 o’clock at night introducing people to communities. I pay tribute to those from parties of all colours across the United Kingdom. It really was a galvanising of a national effort. If we do that in future, we can meet the strategic challenge on migration.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for his statement; I know that he cares deeply about this. In the light of the Afghan resettlement update—I know this falls slightly without his remit—to what extent are the Government putting pressure on the Afghan regime about girls and women’s education, with it being two years since the ban? He mentioned that there is the opportunity locally for Afghans to learn English, and we know how important that is for integration. What estimation does he make of that funding so far in their integration?

[Johnny Mercer]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. There is funding available to do English courses, and every Afghan who has come over has had access to those courses. We are getting to the point, with Afghans having been in the United Kingdom for two years, where they should be speaking English, and we have made a real effort to ensure that happens.

On Afghan politics, I have worked out that the critical thing when working cross-departmentally, whether on veterans or this issue, is that we have to respect the lane we are in. That is clearly an issue for the Foreign Office, which I am sure will have heard my hon. Friend’s question. He can approach it for more detail.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Mark Logan Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

It is a sorrowful privilege to rise to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen on behalf of Bolton North East. We are faced with the indescribable loss of the guardian of our traditions and the soul of our nation, but Her Majesty was more than that: for evermore, she will be the United Kingdom. We are feeling this loss, achingly so, in Bolton. You only had to be there during the platinum jubilee celebrations to get a sense of the adulation felt for the Queen in our town. Bolton was, on many occasions, the preferred destination of Her Majesty. In 1953, not long after taking the throne, the Queen’s first-ever football match was the FA cup final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers at Wembley stadium. Wanderers lost 4-3—though that was later remedied in 1958 when the Duke of Edinburgh awarded them the FA cup after they beat Man United 2-0.

Her Majesty first visited Bolton in 1954 where the royal train pulled up into Trinity Street station, and in 1968 she visited St Paul’s church in Halliwell. In 1988, Queen Elizabeth II visited Bolton to celebrate the town’s 150th birthday, witnessing investment into the town centre, and 30 years on, the town is being revamped once again. Her last visit was to Warburtons, where the rock that was forever by her side—the Duke of Edinburgh—joked with factory workers. I was going to say, “Imagine being a fly on the wall for some of those jokes”, but Warburtons has a great hygiene regime in place and therefore no flies.

We MPs may think we are busy running around our constituencies, but Her Majesty was able to see so many people and places in each of our respective areas. She was there all along, as our living environments and country went through inevitable change. We can learn from her integrity and live up to higher standards—for she was the standard. The wave of her hand, the comfort of her words at 3 pm on Christmas day and the steps she took on every footpath across the kingdom and the Commonwealth kept us all on the one road. We will never cease to miss and cherish her. As Her Majesty said during June’s celebrations,

“I hope this renewed sense of togetherness will be felt for many years to come”.

As we are brought together here to mourn our collective loss, I say, God bless the Queen. God save the King.

Afghanistan

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 6th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady should know that, of course, we try to help people coming from Afghanistan in the most expeditious way possible. This country cannot be faulted for the generosity of our offer on the resettlement programme and it certainly cannot be faulted for the sheer number of people we have already moved to this country.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement. Aside from the G7 and traditional partners to which the Prime Minister referred, what role does he envisage Pakistan, Uzbekistan and in particular China playing in the geopolitics of the region of central Asia in the months and years ahead?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend asks a very important question. I think the answer is that it is in the interests of every single one of the countries that he has mentioned to ensure that Afghanistan does not relapse into being a breeding ground for terror. That is not in China’s interests, in Uzbekistan’s interests or in Russia’s interests. Russia has abundant experience of the risks of Afghanistan. That is why it is so important that we work with friends and partners around the world—and, indeed, those who are not ordinarily classified as our friends—to achieve a common perspective on the pressure that we have got to apply to the Taliban.

Covid-19 Update

Mark Logan Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

To the best of my knowledge, everybody is getting the jabs when they are asked to come forward. If the hon. Member has particular cases where people are worried about the time when they are going to get a jab—whether it is AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna or another one—I would be very grateful if he would send me the details, and we will see what we can do to sort it out.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con) [V]]

With a high prevalence of the Indian variants and among the highest infection rates in the UK at 150-plus per 100,000, will the Prime Minister join me in pushing for most of Bolton to be vaccinated ASAP?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point about the rates of infection of the B.1.617.2 variant, as we should probably call it. At the moment the cases look as though they are about 860 or so, but there may be more. It may be more transmissible—it may be considerably more transmissible. We are looking at all the potential solutions for the surges we are seeing in Bolton and elsewhere, including the one that he describes, though that is not top of the list at the moment.

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con) [V]]

The Duke of Edinburgh represented the zeitgeist of a changing Britain. He was born just after the world last witnessed a devastating pandemic, and his contribution to humanity from 1921 to 2021 is unparalleled.

“Prince Philip saved our lives that night”—

these words, spoken by one of the Duke’s crew members, came as a result of his extraordinary bravery in world war two, when he was credited with saving HMS Wallace. Following that difficult period in world history, the Duke, with Her Majesty the Queen, brought renewed hope in the post-war period and the decades that followed. His background and influences very much represented a changing Britain. From his connections overseas to his schooling in Gordonstoun in Scotland, he was very much a man of our Union and a gentleman of the Commonwealth.

From listening to fellow MPs today, it is striking how the Duke covered every blade of grass in our kingdom. I presume that very few of us will ever know this country as well as he did. “A gentleman he was”—that is what a Boltonian said about the Duke in relation to his past visits to our town.

We hold many memorable moments close in our hearts, including visits to officially open Water Place in 1988, and more recently a visit to Warburtons in 2009, not to mention the wealth of contributions for future generations made through the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Students at Bolton School, which was named the largest independent school provider of the scheme in the north-west, will continue to benefit from the Duke’s legacy.

I will end here. As the Duke said on one of his many public engagements,

“I made the best speech of my life for the Olympic Games in Melbourne, it only had 5 words”.

On behalf of everyone in Bolton North East, let me say that our thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and all her family at this very sad and difficult time.

Covid-19: Road Map

Mark Logan Excerpts

Monday 22nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am going to ruthlessly repeat what I said before, which is that I believe that it was absolutely right for this country to secure PPE as fast as we possibly could, just as it has been right to roll out a vaccine programme as fast as we possibly can. It was great to be in Cwmbran and see what they are doing there. That is thanks to the dynamic work of the NHS and everybody in the Department of Health and Social Care, including the Health Secretary.

[Mark Logan (Bolton North East) (Con) [V]]

Today I hosted a Zoom meeting between Bolton North East’s pubs and restaurants and the Minister for Small Business, my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully). Can the Prime Minister ensure that we allow businesses enough time to improve our hospitality’s operating data and make the dates in 2021 utterly delectable?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for what he is doing to help local businesses and rally them. If we can stick to this road map—and I believe that we can—there is not long to go now for those businesses. For hospitality in Bolton, there are two dates: there is outdoor hospitality on 12 April and then indoor, with all its potential, on 17 May. That gives some dates for us all to think about and for business to work towards, and I hope that it will be of some reassurance to them.