Contributions
5,553 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDAfghanistanThe right hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to the issue. Some councils have responded magnificently, notably in the east midlands and elsewhere. I know that my right hon.…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanNo, and the hon. Gentleman is wrong in every respect, including what he says about military hardware because that was decommissioned.06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanMy hon. Friend makes an interesting suggestion and I encourage it to be taken up. We need to ensure that the elements of the Taliban who are different, as I believe they are, from…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI believe the whole country should pull together and everybody should step up to the plate. I know that there are councils across the country that will want to help and are…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI think the best I can do is direct my hon. Friend once again to the integrated review, which I know that he has studied and I believe is now more relevant than ever.06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanThe hon. Gentleman makes an incredibly important point. The labour market is full of vacancies at the moment, and there are obviously opportunities for hard-working people of…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanThe right hon. Gentleman knows, because he has heard me say it before, that there was a full review after the end of the military operation in 2014—a review of what it achieved…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI thank my hon. Friend, whose trenchant views I often agree with, but I think in this case the special relationship—at Carbis Bay I called it the irreplaceable or the…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanVirtually everywhere is the answer to that. [ Interruption. ] We have our own sanctions policy. We have been able to set up new embassies and legations around the world. We are…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanYes. I had the opportunity to thank the troops the other day, but I want to thank everybody who has been involved: Border Force officials and everybody in the councils who has…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI am sure that the whole House sympathises very much with what has happened to those individuals in Afghanistan that the hon. Gentleman describes. We are doing our level best to…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanMy hon. Friend is entirely right to draw attention to the incredible work done by aid agencies and by NGOs. It is precisely to support those fantastic agencies that we have…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanAs I have just reminded the House, the UK ended its military operation in Afghanistan in 2014.06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanYes. I thank my hon. Friend. Of course I congratulate Wiltshire Council on what it is doing, as I congratulate all councils that are stepping up to the plate and helping Afghans…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanThe hon. Gentleman is focusing on exactly the right question and the right response from the western world and, indeed, the global community. We need to work together to ensure…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanNo, I cannot accept what the right hon. Lady has said, because this country has been extremely generous—more generous than most countries around the world—not just in bringing…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanMy right hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the risks that the Taliban are themselves running, because they now possess the government of Afghanistan and it is their…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI must reject that in the strongest possible terms. The House has paid tribute, quite rightly, to the work of the armed services over the last few weeks and months, but it should…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanMy hon. Friend asks a very important question. I think the answer is that it is in the interests of every single one of the countries that he has mentioned to ensure that…06 Sept 2021HANSARDAfghanistanI thank my right hon. Friend. We will be making sure that there is a process by which people can apply, but there is clearly a ceiling in the first year of 5,000 and then it goes…06 Sept 2021