Vicky Ford
Main Page: Vicky Ford (Conservative - Chelmsford)Department Debates - View all Vicky Ford's debates with the Cabinet Office
(5 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Johnny Mercer
It is hard to take the hon. Gentleman seriously when he comes out with statements that are demonstrably untrue; I know that he would not want to mislead the House, but he mentions engaging local authorities and I literally drove round engaging them. As he well knows, this stuff is not correct. Having served in Afghanistan and, during the summer, having driven round every hotel to visit Afghans personally to ensure that none of them slept homeless and that we saw through our duty, I will take no lessons from anybody about how we feel towards this Afghan cohort. Clearly, I will not go into the details of which flights are taking off when.
This Prime Minister and this Government are clear that as the situation has changed we are seeking to get guarantees from the Pakistan Government that those entitled to be here will not be deported from that country. If that does happen, the hon. Gentleman will be able to recall me to this House and I will have failed, but that is not going to happen. This is much like my promise on homelessness; he spent the entire summer saying that something would come to fruition but, again, it never did. On this side of the House we have to govern in the real space, where we deal with operational decisions on a daily basis; we cannot whip ourselves into a lather to try to score points off some of the poorest people in the world. We are determined to see through our commitments to the people of Afghanistan and I look forward to his working with me in that pursuit.
Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)
The situation with Pakistan expelling more than 1.5 million Afghan people from its borders is deeply worrying. I am glad that the Veterans Minister is here today and is going to focus on the very small number of people who may be entitled to come to the UK—it will be just a few thousand. Many hundreds of thousands face the threat of needing to go back into Afghanistan, into the hands of the Taliban, where the economy is in a dreadful position and the country is reeling from the earthquake. These people fear for their lives. What representations are the Foreign Office and our allies making to the Pakistan Government to ask them to think again? What support are we giving to those stuck in a humanitarian crisis on the border?
Johnny Mercer
I will be honest with my hon. right hon. Friend that there are clear distinctions in my role to deal with those who were in Pakistan who are entitled to be in the United Kingdom. Wider Pakistan engagement is a job for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which is busily engaged in that. My priority is to ensure that those who are entitled to be in the UK—those who have been approved to come to the United Kingdom—are not subject to wider Pakistan policy in Afghanistan, but that wider policy is being influenced by the Foreign Office, which is working on that every day. The situation has changed and we are reconfiguring ourselves to deal with that, to ensure that we honour our promises to people.