Contributions
440 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDUkraineI was pleased yesterday to see the Foreign Secretary writing in The Times : “Now is the time for international action to use Russia’s frozen sovereign assets to support Ukraine.”…28 Oct 2025HANSARD Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction BillI am listening carefully to what the hon. Member is saying, and he is absolutely right on the blue belt. Does he therefore regret that in all the debates we have had about the…16 Oct 2025HANSARD Official Secrets Act Case: Witness StatementsIt seems to me that the issue is this: given that all the deputy NSA’s witness statements refer to China as a threat, I cannot understand why the CPS took the nuclear option of…16 Oct 2025HANSARD Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction BillI must say that we are all behaving so well this afternoon. I was saying that there is no incentive or funding mechanism in the Chagos archipelago deal, yet the treaty we are…16 Oct 2025HANSARD Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction BillI am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for her remarks and for the attention that the FCDO has paid to the importance of marine conservation. The biodiversity beyond…16 Oct 2025HANSARD UkraineI begin by publicly welcoming the Foreign Secretary to her new post, and by echoing her comments about the previous Foreign Secretary. I also welcome her commitment to finally…15 Oct 2025HANSARD Security Update: Official Secrets Act CaseIt seems that there is now case law saying that an enemy is a threat to national security. Frankly, that seems to be a lower test not a higher test. But if, in 2024, there was…13 Oct 2025HANSARD Security Update: Official Secrets Act CaseMay I begin by expressing solidarity with the two previous Conservative Chairs of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who would seem to have suffered from having Chinese spies in their…13 Oct 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI will give way one final time, but then I will finish.16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI think it is difficult to have answers to all the right hon. Gentleman’s questions at the moment. I think the most important thing is that lessons are learned, and even if all…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesClearly, we all think that it was a mistake. The question is how the mistake occurred and how we can ensure that this sort of thing does not happen again, because something went…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesThe right hon. Gentleman raises some important points. The power of Select Committees to summon witnesses has been an ongoing debate, and I suspect we have not resolved it yet. He…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesWill the Minister help us with this? In the letter that the new Foreign Secretary wrote to me, she said that the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team conducted a due diligence…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI would not quite put it like that; I think that the Executive do, in the end, make the decision—they are the Executive. However, I think that we should, as a Select Committee,…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesMy hon. Friend may be surprised to hear that I agree with her completely. I think that would be very wise.16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI really am finishing. If we do not have the opportunity to scrutinise this failure, how can we ensure that we stop it from happening again? We need to improve our scrutiny and…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesGenuinely guys, just give me a chance to put this before you. The Foreign Secretary’s letter states that— [ Interruption. ] I hope that the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI think this is quite important, and I would like to have the opportunity to inform the House with clarity so that we all know where we stand. I believe that this contribution to…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI think it is slightly more subtle than that. The point is that if Lord Mandelson had appeared before the Committee, he would have faced a range of questions that would have…16 Sept 2025HANSARDAmbassador to the United StatesI will get to the end of this paragraph, and then I will give way. That is why yesterday my Committee asked the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary and the Cabinet Office…16 Sept 2025