Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I thank all the individuals who signed the petition.

So much has already been said in this debate, so I will concentrate solely on the casualties of this horrendous conflict, particularly children. We have all heard powerful testimonies today, and we have all seen the images on our screens, but we must never forget that the numbers are not just numbers. Behind each and every one is a child, a human being—somebody’s flesh and blood. In the words of a Palestinian grandfather, it was the “soul of my soul” who he buried.

Save the Children recently highlighted that, in 2024, an average of 475 Palestinian children suffered lifelong disabilities. We have heard that potentially more than 30,000 children have been killed and more than 1,000 people have been murdered in the west bank, of which 217 were children. Those children have passed on, but I want to concentrate on the ones who have been left behind. Every month, because of the war, many children suffer traumatic brain injuries and burns, and Gaza has become home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. The question is what we can do about that.

Using private donations, Project Pure Hope has managed to evacuate a grand total of three children so far for urgent treatment in the UK, while 10 children have been brought over by the UK Government for urgent care. We have brought refugees to this country before—we rightly brought more than 200,000 Ukrainians here—so I am sure that we could find the heart, the means and the ways to bring our Palestinian children here if we really wanted to.

I have a constituent who we, along with the University of Leicester, managed to bring over from Gaza as a postgraduate student. Sadly, she contacted me three weeks ago to say that her family home had been bombed by the Israelis; her brother was killed, while her niece Nour Abrahim and her sister-in-law Ronza Muhammad were badly injured. Even with little things such as shrapnel in their legs, there are no antibiotics, so they are getting sepsis. I have written to the Minister about that case, and I know that he would help in any capacity to get these children over here if he could; I am pleading with him to see what his Department can do to bring that family to safety.

Finally, I want the UK Government to commit to two practical steps. First, they should advocate for and help to deliver safe, protected medical evacuation routes for children and other vulnerable civilians. Secondly, they should establish a clear, compassionate commitment to receive a defined number of the most critical medical cases in the UK, particularly where the individuals have close family already here. We cannot overturn what has happened, but at least we can prevent the tragedy from becoming even worse for those who have survived.

UNESCO: 80th Anniversary

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. My speech, borrowing the term from the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies), is more about lofty ideals than the more detailed presentations that have been given by other hon. Members. As UNESCO’s founding fathers said:

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”.

That was a noble ambition at a time when the world, following world war two, was in a state of devastation. Although we are commemorating 80 years since UNESCO made its declaration, it is disheartening to note that since then we have never seen a single day without conflict somewhere in the world. We can have no “Sliding Doors” moment because we cannot say for sure what the world would have looked like without ambitious endeavours like UNESCO and its call for common humanity.

The pursuit of peace is incumbent upon us now more than ever, with the devastating capacity of modern warfare to cause such death and destruction at the touch of a button. With our collective threshold for witnessing devastation and evil so elevated—partly due to social media, where we can see entire villages, hospitals, aid workers, men, women and children eviscerated in front of our eyes on our phone screens and continue to do what we were doing before—I suggest that we redouble our efforts, resources and ambitions for global peace by spotlighting, amplifying and celebrating the common cause of shared humanity.

The sheer scope of projects undertaken by UNESCO is vast and varied, and it has been really interesting to hear hon. Members speak about them. I am from Leicester, where we do not have a world heritage site, but I think Charnwood forest would make a good bid for it. Today, I will speak about three projects that protect world culture and natural heritage, starting with Mount Mulanje. This mountain stands in Malawi, the country of my birth. Mount Mulanje is the latest UNESCO heritage site there. The mountain is not only a resource for nearly a million people, providing clean water, firewood, edible products and protection from the elements, including storms; it is also a place of great spiritual significance for the local population.

What does recognition by UNESCO mean? It means that when mining companies come to drill extracts such as bauxite and other minerals, the listing preserves not only the beauty but the natural resources for its people, as well as the unique spiritual ties between the people and their land.

Secondly, we are now living in a post-truth world, and the issue is about to enter another dimension with the advent of artificial intelligence. UNESCO has pre-empted some of the challenges the globe will face, including the dangers of embedded biases, threats to human rights and climate degradation, through its recommendation on the ethics of AI, which was adopted by the acclamation of 193 member states. In this journey to the unknown, humanity will need all the assistance it can get to navigate the complexities, challenges and dilemmas mankind will face. That resource could become a standard of reference, as it provides information on the gold standard of practice for legislators, educators and commercial entities, among others.

Finally, we have witnessed carnage in the war in Gaza. We are hopefully now coming out on the other side, but a source of constant tension—often the flashpoint—is Jerusalem, the epicentre of the three Abrahamic faiths and a UNESCO world heritage site. The Dome of the Rock is sacred for Muslims as the site where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven to meet his Lord. The Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, is a remnant of the Second Temple, signifying a place of not only spirituality but identity for the Jewish people. Additionally, we have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which houses the tomb of Jesus Christ. This small area of 0.9 km is potentially the area where we need to implement the spirit of the first UNESCO contribution more than anywhere else, embodying the spirit of peace through mutual respect.

Yes, UNESCO, like other organisations, must evolve in its efficiency and proficiency in these challenging times, but organisations like it are too important and vital to abandon. If we pursue a similar policy to that of our international aid and start cutting funding, as we did when we removed ourselves in 1985 for 12 years, it will leave a vacuum that will be filled by others who will shape the world in their image. The cost of that is potentially incalculable, and the result unimaginable.

Gaza and Sudan

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I strongly welcome my hon. Friend’s point. In Jordan, I went to the hospital and met some of the doctors who were helping with the transfer of the patients medevaced from Gaza, through Jordan, to the UK, and I thanked them for their support. We will continue to provide that support for sick and injured children. We are working with other neighbouring countries on how best we can support the rebuilding of healthcare in Gaza. That is urgently needed, and it is an area in which we have considerable expertise.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for her statement. With regard to Sudan, I agree wholeheartedly that both sides must allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian supplies. However, I do not share her confidence in the US-led plan, simply because the US is directly responsible for and a participant in the war crimes and genocide happening in Gaza. It supplied more than 10,000 tonnes of weapons, and more than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed. Does she agree that this is nothing more than the imposition of an illegal occupation through coercive methods? If this plan is adopted in its present form, it will be a mockery of the entire international legal system, and the United Nations will be acting in direct contradiction of the fundamental tenets of international law.

[Yvette Cooper]

It is because of the US-led plan, which is widely supported, including by countries such as Qatar, Türkiye and Egypt in the mediation talks, that we have a ceasefire in Gaza after two years of the most horrendous suffering. President Trump’s leadership and the US’s determination to take the plan forward are immensely important. The UN resolution passed last night had the support of and has been welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and neighbouring Arab and Muslim states. It is important to maintain that unity; we will not get progress if we do not. Ultimately, it is important that we can deliver the two-state solution that this Government are committed to, but we need everyone to work together to deliver that.

Parkinson’s Disease

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Gregory Stafford]

I have also been approached by BeechBand. I hope the Minister agrees that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the Government must ensure that where there are new, innovative technologies that could help sufferers of Parkinson’s or any other disease condition, they can get to the frontline to help people as quickly as possible.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Does the hon. Member agree that early detection is key to fighting this disease? Is he, like me, encouraged by research from Moorfields eye hospital and University College London that found that a scan of the retina—the back of the eye—can detect Parkinson’s disease seven years before any symptoms present?

[Gregory Stafford]

I bow to the hon. Member’s experience on that. I hope the Minister is listening carefully, because these types of innovative technologies can make a significant difference and should be rolled out as quickly as possible.

Living with Parkinson’s brings real financial strain. On average, people spend more than £7,500 each year managing their conditions. That rises to £22,000 when lost earnings are included, so support is not just a clinical need, but an economic one.

In my Farnham and Bordon constituency, which includes Haslemere, Liphook and the surrounding villages, 289 people are currently living with Parkinson’s. The fact that we are—I believe—the only constituency served by three integrated care boards of different sizes brings with it not only challenges but a chance for comparison. Despite their different sizes, some of their challenges are the same, including the increasing number of emergency admissions across all three ICBs. Those numbers lay bare the scale of need and the pressure on services, and underline the urgent requirement for earlier access to specialist care. I raised these concerns in May as the shadow Minister, but I sadly remain unconvinced that the current Government have identified Parkinson’s as a strategic priority.

The new 10-year health plan imagines neighbourhood teams of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and social workers. It is a positive vision, but it will work only if Parkinson’s specialists are part of those teams. In the Health and Social Care Committee, we often hear about artificial intelligence, remote monitoring and wearable devices, all of which have the potential to transform care through early intervention and better monitoring. The Government must look at those things as well.

I will end with three clear questions. First, in May, the Minister committed to discussing support from the point of diagnosis with Parkinson’s Connect, the Parkinson’s UK programme designed to equip NHS professionals. Have those discussions taken place, and what actions will follow? Secondly, the Minister has said that Parkinson’s nurses are

“worth their weight in gold”—[Official Report, 1 May 2025; Vol. 766, c. 493WH.]

and I agree. What practical measures have been introduced to strengthen training and development for those nurses, particularly those who support patients with the most complex needs?

Thirdly, will the Minister commit to working closely with charities such as Parkinson’s UK to ensure that the 10-year plan gives patients, carers and frontline staff the support they urgently need? Members on both sides of this Chamber share one goal: to get better diagnosis, better treatment and better support for people living with Parkinson’s. Action is what brings progress, and action is what our constituents need and deserve.

Conflict in Sudan

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

We do of course use our role as penholder at the Security Council, but we try to use the full range of our obligations at the UN on this question, which includes leading the core group on Sudan at the Human Rights Council. That is why we have taken the action that we have taken today.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

In addition to surviving bombs, bullets and sexual violence, the 24 million people in Sudan are facing an acute food shortage. According to Save the Children, people are eating leaves, grass and even peanut shells to survive. That situation has been further compounded by the expulsion of the World Food Programme’s country director and emergency co-ordinator. What steps, if any, has the Minister or his Department taken to ensure that the World Food Programme and other UN agencies can continue to deliver lifesaving assistance immediately, without obstruction?

[Mr Falconer]

The hon. Gentleman has raised an important point. I can confirm that we have raised directly with both parties to the conflict the importance of the issues that he has mentioned.

Sudan: Protection of Civilians

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Thursday 30th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and my noble Friend the Minister in the other place have made it clear that we will continue to play a key humanitarian role, and we have committed to protecting our funding to support people affected by this crisis over the next three years. We will provide in total £120 million this year, delivering aid to more than 650,000 people, which makes us the third-largest donor. My hon. Friend can be absolutely assured that this issue is at the top of our agenda, particularly the situation for children, as she rightly mentions.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

With so many conflicts around the world, I am sad to say that we have failed them as a House, as a country and as humanity, whether it be in Ukraine or in Gaza, but what we have not done is forget those other conflicts. This conflict is now in its third year, with more than 150,000 dead and the worst humanitarian crisis as we speak. We have not only failed them, but forgotten them. That is what the Sudanese diaspora in this country tell me all the time. Will the Minister agree to meet with the Darfur Diaspora Association UK and hear its concerns, because it feels unheard?

[Stephen Doughty]

I absolutely recognise the concerns of the Sudanese diaspora in this country—indeed, I have many different members of the Sudanese diaspora in my constituency of Cardiff South and Penarth—and I absolutely assure the hon. Gentleman that they have not been forgotten by this Government or by many Members of this House. Many of us have spoken on these issues over many years and have worked to try to find ways forward, to ensure that support is given and there is an end to this terrible conflict. He can be absolutely assured that we engage regularly with different groups. I will pass on his request to my colleague in the other place and hope to be able to get back to him in due course.

Gaza and Hamas

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

One thing I have learned so far as a politician is not to make comparisons between the middle east and practically anywhere else, and certainly not with Northern Ireland. I will allow the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to answer the hon. and learned Gentleman’s particular questions about the current arrangements. Clearly, peace is possible—we have demonstrated it here and in many other places. That has to the be the work of the Government, and that is what we are focused on.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It appears that this ceasefire is going in the same vein as previous announcements on ceasefires—primarily one side, the Palestinians, cease; the other side, Israelis, continue to fire. Some 20 Palestinians have been killed every single day since this so-called last ceasefire. Last night was the most violent, with more than 104 Palestinians killed and the targeting of a cancer patient camp. We all appreciate the Minister coming in week in, week out to answer these questions—I certainly do—but given that the UK has not stopped arming Israel since the genocide began, can he confirm how many export licences to Israel have been granted in Labour’s time in office?

Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Westminster Hall

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer.

Nine children lie in bloodstained, torn clothes. They were not fighters, militants, extremists or terrorists; they were simply queuing for water in what Israel itself has declared a safe zone, and yet the so-called most moral army in the world unleashed death upon them. Their small bodies now bear witness to a horror that no child should ever know. That is not an isolated strategy, as the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) so powerfully said. We have seen the death of innocent people in churches, mosques, hospitals and schools—every sector of Palestinian society has been destroyed.

For those who survive the bombs, starvation is tightening its grip. Families are already watching loved ones waste away: 361 people have already died of hunger, including 83 since famine was officially declared. The world’s leading genocide scholars, Israeli human rights organisations and international experts are clear: what is happening in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide. Yet here in Britain, the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), in his final flurry as Foreign Secretary, wrote that the Government have not determined that Israel acts with intent, and therefore there is not a genocide. How can anybody look away relentlessly when all this tragedy is happening?

I have very little time, so I ask the Minister: will he call on diplomatic—

[Graham Stringer (in the Chair)]

Order.

Qatar: Israeli Strike

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

That is more properly a question for the Attorney General. I think there has been some correspondence between him and his shadow, but I will revert to the Attorney General’s latest position on that question.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

We have witnessed the Israeli army massacre over 60,000 people in Gaza, 19,000 of whom were children. The blood-soaked tentacles of the Israeli army are now reaching closer to home, especially in my case. Yesterday afternoon in Doha, my niece and her daughter were having a lovely time together in a library when the Israeli army, which this Government fail to condemn for committing genocide, dropped a bomb two or three streets away from where they were. The building shook, and there was smoke everywhere. My niece’s baby is still asking, “Will it happen again?”, so I ask the Minister: will it happen again, and what will this Government do, beyond saying empty words? When will we completely stop every single arms sale to Israel, impose economic, political and social sanctions, and use all our power to get desperately needed aid into Gaza?

Oral Answers to Questions

Shockat Adam Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing Yara to the attention of the House. Of course we want to see bright students like her able to achieve their ambitions. We are reliant on Israeli permissions and on students having a full scholarship, but what I can do is ensure that the Minister for the Middle East meets my hon. Friend to discuss this case in detail.

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

Along with thousands of other children, my youngest son is today going back for his first day at school. Unfortunately, more than 660,000 Gazan children—those who have not been butchered or maimed irreversibly by the Israel Defence Forces—are being denied schooling for the third consecutive year. That is not surprising, given that 97% of schools have already been virtually destroyed. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that the next generation of Palestinians can access education, alongside launching a bespoke visa system that enables students to come to study here in the UK? If not, why not?

[Mr Lammy]

The hon. Gentleman is right to raise with the House the plight of children in Gaza. Yesterday I mentioned my concerns about malnourished children and what that does for their educational outcomes. Yesterday he will have heard the Home Secretary and myself undertake to do more to support students with full scholarships to come to our country. Of course, as the hon. Gentleman would expect, I press the Israeli Foreign Minister on these very same issues.