Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra]

I will say one thing in response to the hon. and learned Gentleman, which is that it is extremely important that we treat trans people with respect. Secondly, the Equality Act will continue to protect trans people and their rights in law.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

I welcome the clarity that the code brings for service providers, and I note, too, that Women’s Aid is just one of the organisations that has welcomed it. Can my hon. Friend confirm that the Supreme Court judgment and the code have not revoked any rights for anyone, but have confirmed single-sex rights that protect women and girls?

[Seema Malhotra]

I was not quite clear about that question, but I will say that the draft guidance is about supporting women and their rights and the provision of single-sex spaces, alongside treating trans people with dignity, and that will continue to be our focus.

Middle East

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

I do, to all three questions.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

Although I welcome my hon. Friend’s statement, given all we have heard today, my constituents and I are concerned about the reported closure of the Conflict and Security Monitoring Project. I have seen at first hand how important its work is, and how important the projects are that it undertakes, in order to monitor human rights violations in the region. Can my hon. Friend assure the House that the Foreign Office is still able to track the number of potential breaches of international law in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, and compare that to the number this time last year?

[Mr Falconer]

I can offer my hon. Friend that assurance.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

There have been important commitments about the future nature of any Palestinian state, including from President Abbas, who said that any such state would be demilitarised. There was absolute clarity in New York—where we made the announcement about the recognition decision—that Hamas can have no future role in Gaza and that a future Palestinian state must pose no threat to an Israeli state. Two states requires two states living in safety and security and posing no threat to each other.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

I welcome the sanctions that the Government have put in place on the Israeli Government, as in their current form they are not a reliable or trusted partner. Has the Foreign Secretary ordered a review of the UK’s relationship with the Israeli Government over the last 13 months? If not, why not?

[Mr Falconer]

I set out the detail of the sanctions to which my hon. Friend refers, and the Foreign Secretary has announced a review of some of the elements of our bilateral co-operation with Israel, including a number of steps in relation to free trade agreements and so on.

Middle East

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

We are doing everything we can in supporting our Qatari, Egyptian and US friends to get a ceasefire. The hon. Member will understand that, in looking closely at these issues, even if we are contemplating further measures, they work more effectively if we can co-ordinate allies.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

The ground invasion of Deir al-Balah is the latest to add to the daily attacks on Gazans, and it is further evidence that the conflict has gone too far. Israeli Foreign Ministers have already rejected the joint statement signed by 31 countries, including ours. Can the Foreign Secretary outline what additional specific steps he will take with others to bring about a ceasefire and secure aid for starving Gazans?

[Mr Lammy]

I set out in my statement the action that this Government have taken, and I stand by it. I regret that we have not brought about a ceasefire. I have also set out that we are attempting to get in more aid and how we are supporting the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian Authority, and I stand by that.

Iran-Israel Conflict

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

We have had a very serious debate in this House so far that recognises the serious threat that Iran’s nuclear capability poses to the global community and the existential threat that the Israeli people are facing. I have been absolutely clear that diplomacy is the way. Donald Trump is urging a path back to diplomacy. The UK was of course not involved, but we have to be mindful about the many people in both Israel and Iran who are hiding in their bunkers, fearing the loss of their life.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

I am sure the whole House is behind the diplomatic efforts of the Prime Minister and the Government to avoid any further escalation of this conflict, and I thank my right hon. Friend for the reassurances he has given about not taking his eye off the horrors that continue to unfold in Gaza. Can he give a guarantee today that if there were to be an escalation that would drag the UK into any conflict, a vote in this House would be held first, before our armed forces were deployed?

[Mr Lammy]

As this conflict escalates, our message to both Israel and Iran is very clear: de-escalation and restraint.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend is kind, and I am grateful for her words. She is very welcome to call me her hon. Friend. The questions that she raises are key. We discuss these issues with our friends and our allies. Not all our positions are the same, but I will always set out with clarity, both from this Dispatch Box and in all my diplomatic engagements, the position of the UK Government.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

I welcome the sanctions outlined by my hon. Friend today, and I thank him for all the work he has done. I know his commitment to the Palestinian people and the concerns he has, which he shares with us on a regular basis. Action has been required for some time. The up and coming UN conference on a two-state solution is an opportunity to work with allies or alone to recognise the Palestinian state. May I add my voice to that request and ask my hon. Friend: if not then, when?

[Mr Falconer]

I once again thank my hon. Friend for her kind words and recognise her force of feeling on the question of recognition. As I said earlier, I am sure I will be back in this House and continuing to discuss these issues with her.

Middle East Update

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

The hon. Lady is right to press on the absolutely vital importance of aid getting into Gaza. Those are points that we make regularly and with force to the Israeli Government. Part of my anguish is about the reports that I read, as so many in the House do, of the continued failure for that to happen. I will address a point that I think she may have made, which others have also made, about whether there are alternative routes to get aid into Gaza. A range of alternative routes, other than through the land crossing, have been tried. It is the view of the British Government that no route other than a land route can get the scale of aid that is now required into Gaza. Israeli decision making is preventing those land routes from being in operation. The hon. Lady asks about the recognition of a Palestinian state, and I refer her to my previous answers.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his statement following yet another appalling turn of events towards Gaza by the Israeli Government. In a Westminster Hall debate in February, I said I feared that

“if the occupation continues, it will become increasingly difficult to apply international law to the situation on the ground.”—[Official Report, 12 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 198WH.]

I now fear that if we do not recognise a Palestinian state, there will be no Palestinian state that includes Gaza left to recognise. Will the UK Government take immediate steps to recognise the state of Palestine?

Palestinian Rights: Government Support

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I congratulate the Father of the House, the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), on securing the debate. It was a privilege to join him recently on the delegation organised by Yachad to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

At the outset, I must share my horror at the Israeli Government’s most recent action in stopping all aid going into Gaza. It is paramount that both Israel and Hamas move to the second phase of the ceasefire so that we can secure the return of all hostages and a long-term peace.

Visiting the west bank and the Gaza envelope was an honour, and it brings a perspective I will never forget. While we were in the west bank, we heard directly from Palestinian families who have been victims of settler violence. It is estimated that there are around 250 settlements in the west bank and East Jerusalem—settlements that have led to Palestinian families being attacked, Palestinian children being harassed on the way to and from school, cars being burned and damaged, houses and schools being destroyed, access to water and roads being blocked, and families being prevented from working their land to make a living and feed themselves.

Not only did we hear about settler violence, but we witnessed it at first hand when we were approached by two armed settlers in the south Hebron hills. An even more alarming incident occurred last week, when Yachad organised a trip for a group of British rabbis on a similar visit to ours. A settler drove his car towards the delegation, threatening to run into it on several occasions, blocking the participants from leaving the area and then driving into the side of their bus, as well as the car that was accompanying them with the photographer. The same delegation of rabbis—British Jewish leaders who care about Israel and who want peace—saw at first hand how settler youths attacked Palestinian women in Hebron, spitting at them and kicking them until the military intervened. No punitive action was taken. It is clear that, in the west bank, settlers control the land.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for speaking so passionately about her visit. I worked as a human rights observer in Hebron several years ago, and one thing that is too little understood in this place and the other place is the day-to-day humiliation and degradation that Palestinians are put through, in addition to the horrific violence. Does my hon. Friend agree that that day-to-day humiliation and degradation are just as unacceptable?

[Tracy Gilbert]

I absolutely agree that the challenge the Palestinian people face just trying to live their day-to-day lives is completely intolerable.

Luckily, to return to the incident I was describing, no one was hurt on this occasion—but that is not the case on every occasion. Those are just a few examples of the threats of violence that Israeli settlers inflict on Palestinians every day.

The situation of Palestinians in the west bank and Gaza is desperate. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion declaring Israel’s occupation of the west bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip to be unlawful under international law. The court emphasised that Israel’s prolonged occupation and settlement activities violate the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and contravene international legal principles. It also stated that all states are obligated to ensure that they are not in any way aiding or assisting the maintenance of the continued presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

As a democratic country committed to the rule of law and human rights, the UK must consider the gravity of that ruling and how it will affect UK-Israeli relations. In particular, it must examine whether continuing to allow goods produced in settlements in the west bank into the UK market would be considered assisting and prolonging the occupation, hence denying basic rights to the Palestinian people. I welcome the sanctions put in place last October, but I am keen to hear from the Minister what impact they have had and what further actions the Government can take. For example, they could extend sanctions to regional councils in the west bank that are responsible for funding illegal and violent outposts.

I will close with the powerful remarks made by Roni Keidar, whom our delegation met, as colleagues have pointed to. As a woman who has lived on the Gaza border most of her life and survived the attacks on 7 October, she said that

“either the Israeli and Palestinian people find a way to live together, or they will die together.”

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

It is my pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) for securing this important debate.

While our closest allies rubbish the international courts, we must not go down that path and I welcome the Government’s statements to that effect. As my time is brief, I will focus on one particular argument. Occupations are never planned to be extraordinarily long. Israeli occupation is now 57 years long, as reflected in Judge Yusuf’s separate opinion. I fear that, if the occupation continues, it will become increasingly difficult to apply international law to the situation on the ground. I am therefore keen to hear from the Minister about what approach the Government are taking to ensure that the current fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas can become a long-lasting peace with a two-state solution. That is the only way that this extraordinarily long occupation will be brought to an end in the interests of Israeli and Palestinian people.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tracy Gilbert Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

The Government inherited a situation in the British Indian Ocean Territory involving Tamil migrants from India and Sri Lanka who had arrived there. We are delivering a solution that protects migrants’ welfare but avoids opening a dangerous new migration route. The hon. Gentleman’s concerns regarding safeguarding and any other issues are absolutely at the heart of that and are being dealt with by Home Office and other ministerial colleagues.

[Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab)]

My right hon. Friend will share my concern about the increasing number of women being given death sentences by the Iranian authorities. What urgent representations will he make to the Iranian Government to overturn those death sentences and ensure that women receive a fair trial?