Middle East

Debate between Monica Harding and Keir Starmer

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Let me be clear: in the rebuilding that must go on, there has to be the bringing together of communities and also the accountability and justice that is necessary for a full rebuilding towards a lasting settlement.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to flood Gaza with aid. The UN estimates that $4 billion is needed this year to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, of which just 28% has been pledged. The UK’s contribution to humanitarian relief this year will total only $116 million, so with the entire population of Gaza in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, does the Prime Minister believe that the UK’s contribution to Gaza’s relief is adequate?

[The Prime Minister]

We have made a significant contribution. As we go forward, we are looking at public and private commitments to the reconstruction project that needs to take place—not just the aid, but the rebuilding. That is a huge challenge that faces us all, and we will rise to that challenge with others.

Defence and Security

Debate between Monica Harding and Keir Starmer

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do agree with that, and I agree with my hon. Friend’s comments about the supply chains, which are vital to the security effort.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

The former United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis once said:

“If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.”

Can the Prime Minister not see that funding this uplift through official development assistance is short-sighted and a strategic and moral mistake, because prevention is cheaper than wars, because this gives more leverage to Russia and China, and because we do it on the backs of the world’s poorest? In fact, it is something that I never thought I would see a Labour Government do, and a pitiful inheritance from 1997. Given that it is a policy choice and not a retrospective fiscal one, and given that it is in direct contravention of the law passed here in 2015, which rules out the link between levels of defence and development funding, will this Labour Government be repealing that law?

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right to say that prevention is better than war—that is why it is important that we prepare our defence to be able to secure and maintain the peace, and that is precisely why I made my statement today—but she is wrong about the law, and we are not going to repeal it.