Oral Answers to Questions

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We do raise the issue of human rights when we meet the Gulf states, but the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right in relation to the role that Russia is playing in Syria. There is a very simple message for President Putin. He has it within his own hands to say to the Assad regime that enough is enough in Aleppo. We need to ensure that humanitarian aid is there for people and that there is security for the people who have, as the hon. Gentleman has said, been heroically saving the lives of others. I am sure that that is a message that he and others will be giving to the Russian ambassador. It is in President Putin’s hands; he can do it, why does he not?

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

Q14. On the same subject, will the Prime Minister join me in thanking the many Members from all parts of this House who sung for Syrians last night in St Margaret’s, Westminster? Singing for Syrians was created to pay the salaries of the medical staff in Aleppo. Since our hospital was bombed two weeks ago, we have been buying prosthetic limbs with all our money. We have a waiting list of 30,000 people. What can we do to target our humanitarian aid to ensure that it gets to the most vulnerable people in Syria—the old, the very young, and people who are too injured to move?

[The Prime Minister]

First of all, I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating everyone who took part in Singing for Syrians. I am sure the whole House welcomes the work that that group is doing and the money that it is raising and putting to extremely good use. The House was struck when she mentioned the number of people who are on the waiting list for prosthetic limbs. Our humanitarian aid support for Syria is the biggest such effort that the UK has made. Of course we are giving money to the refugees who have fled from Syria. We are also working diplomatically to try to reduce the suffering and to ensure that the sort of aid and medical support that she is talking about gets through to the citizens of Aleppo. We will continue to ensure that our humanitarian aid is being put to good use—helping those who are vulnerable and also helping those who need the education and support to be able, in due course, to rebuild Syria when it is stable and secure.