Air India Plane Crash

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

Regrettably, in incidents of this scale, identification tends to take some time. Through family liaison officers in the UK and consular staff, we are trying to support British nationals and those affected in India and here in the UK to enable the contribution of DNA. If any right hon. or hon. Member wants to ensure that their constituents get support through that process in India or here in the UK, they should please not hesitate to be in touch.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

When news of the tragedy came last week, it served as a real unifier in my great city of Leicester—it unified us in shock, absolute disbelief and mourning. I take this opportunity to remember the names of those who lost their life who were associated with my great city: Hardik Avaiya, Vibhooti Patel, Pooja Patel, Harshit Patel, Ajay Kumar Ramesh and Faizan Rafik. We also had the one sole survivor, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

When I visited the families, it was great to see so much support from their neighbours, of all faiths and no faith. Indeed, during our darkest time we saw the best of my city. A couple of families mentioned some difficulty in accessing information. Will the Minister look urgently at communications with the families, so that they can get support at this very difficult time? My message to them, as I am sure the whole House will agree is this: you are not alone.

[Mr Falconer]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman—they are not alone. In relation to any questions about the experience of our consular support, I invite right hon. and hon. Members to ensure that I am aware, both in relation to the tragic incident in India, but also in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Iran. As the Minister for consular affairs, let me say that it is important that we understand what the experience is like for people on ground. In relation to this incident, as I told the shadow Foreign Secretary, I spoke with teams this afternoon to ensure that UK support is as clearly signposted as possible on the ground.