Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Randall Excerpts

Tuesday 24th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

ODA and our aid budget will remain at the absolute centre of the work we do as a force for good. I am afraid that we will have to wait for the spending review to hear what the Chancellor has to say on that.

[Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the aggressive language from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, saying that the west “should beware of their eyes being poked and blinded”,demonstrates that country’s contempt for freedom and democracy and that now is the time for stringent actions, including targeted sanctions? If the current sanctions regime does not allow for the targeting of those responsible for what is happening in Hong Kong, will the Government consider new regulations that target those authority figures who are truly guilty, not innocent Hongkongers?

[Dominic Raab]

I totally share my hon. Friend’s objective. With the Magnitsky sanctions, the key thing is to target those directly responsible. That requires evidence, and we work very closely with all our international partners to share our experience and compare notes in relation to that. The recent comments follow on from the solidarity that we as Five Eyes, alongside the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have shown in relation to human rights, in particular in Hong Kong. It also follows on from the wider caucus of 39 countries that backed the UK in the UN Third Committee on not only Hong Kong but the issue of Xinjiang.