Contributions
1,406 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDFemale Genital MutilationNotwithstanding what may happen with the machinery of government, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State just said, I remind the hon. Lady that we are committed—indeed, we…29 Jan 2020HANSARDFemale Genital MutilationThe hon. Lady is right to raise this matter. I am pleased to say that the UK leads the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end FGM. In 2018, we announced a further…29 Jan 2020HANSARDGadaffi-sponsored TerrorismThe Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 4 October formally commenced the appointment of Mr William Shawcross as his Special Representative on UK victims of…14 Jan 2020HANSARDTopical QuestionsMay I, Mr Speaker, extend my felicitations from Wiltshire on your advancement? I feel absolutely certain that my Wiltshire colleagues would join me in that. I thank my hon. Friend…05 Nov 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaThat is a reasonable analogy to draw, because we are dealing with UK law, and these children ultimately will be returned to the UK. In my view, we need to use the same standards,…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaFrom my conversations with my international interlocutors yesterday, that does not appear to be the approach being taken by most countries. The Government clearly have a duty to…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI am really pleased that the hon. Gentleman has raised that point. He is absolutely right to say that safeguarding will be vital when these children return to the UK. He is a…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaWe want to assist all vulnerable children; I hope I have made that very clear. The reason I said that I did not recognise a figure of 50 or 60 was not that I was trying to…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI am not sure I would agree entirely with what I read in The Guardian newspaper, and I would certainly disagree with the characterisation that the hon. Gentleman has portrayed. I…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaMy right hon. Friend is fully familiar with all this territory. Of course, some of the children will have been born in Syria, which I think illustrates the complexity that I…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaAs I said, we have been working over the past several days, and indeed for some considerable time, to better understand the situation in al-Hawl camp, in particular, to satisfy…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI am grateful to my right hon. Friend. He will know that we are currently trying to better understand the situation in al-Hawl, in particular, to try to identify those who have…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaThat process is not dependent on the end of the ceasefire. My point was that it is made a great deal easier in the event that the security situation on the ground is more benign…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI thank the right hon. Lady, who has taken a very long-term interest in this. I would diverge from the pretext of her question, which is that we have not been doing anything; I…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI believe that that is the case. I do not discern a dramatic difference from the approach taken by countries with which we could reasonably be compared—that is to say, the…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaYes, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s first-hand experience in Syria and the efforts he has made to better understand what is going on. The situation in north-east Syria is…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI thank my right hon. Friend. Certainly we would want to work with agencies. If he will forgive me, I am not going to specify which agencies. He will know, as he has been…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI completely distance myself from the phrase “sins of the father”. There is no question about this. These are innocent minors; they are vulnerable people and we must do what we…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI thank the hon. Gentleman, who puts his points in his usual effective and forceful way. It is right to point out that the UK has been right at the forefront of applying…22 Oct 2019HANSARD British Children: SyriaI thank my right hon. Friend for his points. He is right to say that the UK Government’s approach to this is, I hope, informed by compassion and care for individual cases. Our…22 Oct 2019