Business of the House

Richard Foord Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

Music venues, cultural assets and leisure services are vital to our town centre regeneration, and our high street accelerators programme will be looking at grassroots venues. I encourage my hon. Friend to raise these issues in Housing, Communities and Local Government questions in a couple of weeks.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

I was contacted this week by a resident of Sidmouth whose parent was interned in a Japanese camp during world war two. She wrote to me about her father’s affidavits, which are held by the Imperial War Museum, saying,

“They do not make good reading, but bear great similarity to what is happening in Gaza.”

Will the Government make a statement about their stance on whether Israel’s far-right Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Givr should be subject to UK Government sanctions? Also, will they offer support to the International Criminal Court as it seeks arrest warrants for the likes of Netanyahu and Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar?

[Lucy Powell]

The comments made by the Israeli Ministers, as the Prime Minister said yesterday, were “abhorrent”; disgraceful and unacceptable language was used. We are working closely with our allies internationally to bring an end to the horrors we are seeing in Israel and Gaza, which is why we need to make sure that everybody operates within international law. The Government are committed to that and to bringing about an immediate ceasefire so we can work towards a long-term solution.