Israel: Refusal of Entry for UK Parliamentarians Debate
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Stella Creasy
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Israel: Refusal of Entry for UK Parliamentarians
Stella Creasy Excerpts(6 days, 5 hours ago)
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Mr Falconer
That is a decent and honourable contribution, and I thank the right hon. Member for it.
Ms Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)
Colleagues who were elected after 2024 may not know that in 2022, 287 of us parliamentarians were banned from entering Russia over our views about the Ukrainian crisis, including not just the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) and me, but the right hon. Member for North West Essex (Mrs Badenoch), the Leader of the Opposition. At that time, the House stood as one standing up to that intimidation. Today, from the Opposition, we get a dog whistle so loud—about our colleagues, who did nothing wrong apart from wanting to go and see for themselves what was going on—that it could be heard on the moon. What a disgrace. Does the Minister agree that this Government will always defend free speech and that defending free speech means defending the ability of people to go and talk about things that others may not want to talk about?
Mr Falconer
As I have said, these parliamentary delegations are very valuable, and I want to see them continue.