Oral Answers to Questions

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

2. What steps his Department is taking to help tackle the persecution of Christians overseas.

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

4. What steps his Department is taking to help tackle the persecution of Christians overseas.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

17. What steps his Department is taking to help tackle the persecution of Christians overseas.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning the Open Doors report, which contains some stark statistics. It states, for example, that 80% of the people who suffer persecution for their religious belief are Christians. The most striking statement is that the vast majority are in the very poorest countries: this is not, on the whole, a problem affecting people who live in affluent countries.

My hon. Friend is right to mention that countries such as North Korea have been singled out. The purpose of the review is to ensure that we use all the UK’s diplomatic leverage to highlight these issues and put pressure on those regimes to change.

[Victoria Prentis]

The Open Doors report says that about 245 million Christians are suffering high levels of persecution in 73 countries. Where is the UK focusing our help?

[Mr Hunt]

I want to ensure that we exercise maximum influence where we have that influence. The striking thing about that report is that, notwithstanding the comments that my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) made about North Korea, some of the worst offenders are in the middle east, notably Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan and Somalia, where the population of Christians has fallen from 20% to around 5%. In many of those countries, we have big aid budgets and a lot of influence.