The Secretary of State for International Development (Penny
Mordaunt) Let me take this opportunity to put on record that
the aid workers who have been attacked in south Sudan are very much
in our thoughts. Aid workers should never be a target, and I am
sure that the whole House will want to send our good wishes to them
and their families at this difficult time. I want to update
the House on the United...Request free
trial
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The Secretary of State for International Development (Penny
Mordaunt)
Let me take this opportunity to put on record that the aid
workers who have been attacked in south Sudan are very much
in our thoughts. Aid workers should never be a target, and I
am sure that the whole House will want to send our good
wishes to them and their families at this difficult time.
I want to update the House on the United Kingdom’s support
for the people of Syria. I am keenly aware that Members are
deeply concerned about the level of suffering experienced by
millions of Syrians. The United Kingdom has shown, and will
continue to show, leadership in the international
humanitarian response.
In the eighth year of the conflict, the plight of the Syrian
people remains grave. The Syrian regime appears to have no
intention of ending the suffering of its own people, although
the opposition have placed no conditions on peace
negotiations. The barbaric attack in Douma on innocent
civilians, including young children, was yet another example
of the regime’s disregard for its responsibility to protect
civilians. Some may seek to cast doubt over the attack and
who was responsible for it, but intelligence and first-hand
accounts from non-governmental organisations and aid workers
are clear. The World Health Organisation received reports
that hundreds of patients had arrived at Syrian heath
facilities on the night of 7 April with
“signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic
chemicals.”
Regime helicopters were seen over Douma on that evening, and
the opposition do not operate helicopters or use barrel
bombs.
Assad and his backers—Russia and Iran—will attempt to block
every diplomatic effort to hold the regime accountable for
these reprehensible and illegal tactics. That was why the
United Kingdom, together with our United States and French
allies, took co-ordinated, limited and targeted action
against the regime’s chemical weapons capabilities to
alleviate humanitarian suffering. Britain is clear: we will
defend the global rules-based system that keeps us all safe.
I welcome the support that we have received from Members and
from the international community. We will work with the
United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons to create a new independent mechanism to
attribute responsibility for chemical weapons attacks. We
will work with France on the International Partnership
against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons, and we will
work with the EU to establish a new sanctions regime against
those responsible for chemical weapons use.
In wielding its UN veto 12 times, Russia has given a green
light to Assad to perpetrate human rights atrocities against
his own people. This is a regime that has used nearly 70,000
barrel bombs on civilian targets; a regime that tries to
starve its people into submission, although the UN Security
Council has called for unhindered humanitarian access; a
regime that has continued to obstruct aid to eastern Ghouta
and removes medical supplies from the rare aid convoys that
do get in; a regime that deploys rape as a weapon of war,
with nearly eight out of 10 people detained by it reported to
have suffered sexual violence; and a regime that deliberately
bombs schools and hospitals, and targets aid workers and
emergency responders as they race to the scene to help.
We must support the innocent victims of these atrocities. All
warring parties must comply with the Geneva conventions on
the protected status of civilians and other non-combatants.
There must be an immediate ceasefire, and safe access for aid
workers and medical staff to do their jobs.
We also want to adapt what we do to the new reality of this
war. That is why I have announced the new creating hope in
conflict fund with USAID, to work with the private sector to
find new technology to save lives in conflict zones. Britain
will establish a humanitarian innovation hub to develop new
capabilities to hinder regimes that appear determined to slay
innocent men, women and children.
Our aid has made a difference. Despite the horrific violence
meted out by Assad, we have been able to prevent mass
starvation and large-scale outbreaks of disease. When we are
able to reach the people who need our help, our aid works. We
are the second largest bilateral donor to the humanitarian
response in Syria. Since 2012, our support has provided over
22 million monthly food rations, almost 10 million medical
consultations, and over 9 million relief packages. But the
suffering continues. Some 13.1 million people are now in need
of humanitarian assistance. Over half of Syria’s population
has been displaced by violence, with nearly 6 million seeking
refuge in neighbouring countries. In north-west Syria, an
intensification of hostilities and the arrival of an
additional 60,000 people from eastern Ghouta is stretching
scarce resources. Today, 65% of the population of Idlib—over
1.2 million people—have been forced from their homes.
At last week’s conference I announced that the UK will
provide at least £450 million this year, and £300 million
next year, to alleviate extreme suffering in Syria and to
provide vital support in neighbouring countries. This will be
in addition to our support for the second EU facility for
refugees in Turkey. We have now committed £2.71 billion since
2012, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian
crisis.
Our pledge will help to keep medical facilities open to save
lives. We will deploy protective equipment to keep medics and
rescue workers safe. We will deploy antidote stocks to treat
any further victims of chemical weapons. We will train
doctors and nurses to treat trauma wounds. We will focus on
education, making sure that every child in the region has
access to quality education even in the most trying
circumstances, on steps to protect civilians, and on ensuring
that those responsible for attacks face justice.
We will help to support the millions of Syrian refugees
sheltering in neighbouring countries. Our friends in the
region—Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey in particular—continue to
demonstrate extraordinary generosity by opening their doors
to millions fleeing the conflict in Syria. We must continue
to offer them our fullest support. Last week I also announced
that the UK will host an international conference with Jordan
in London later this year. It will showcase Jordan’s economic
reform plans and aspiration to build a thriving private
sector, and mobilise international investment.
There are refugees who cannot be supported in the region:
people requiring urgent medical treatment, survivors of
violence and torture, and women and children at risk of
exploitation. We will work closely with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees to identify those most at risk and
bring them to the UK. We are helping but, with Russia’s
support, Assad continues to bomb his own people, and that is
why so many continue to die and so many have fled their
homes.
There can be no military solution to the Syrian civil war. As
UN special representative Staffan de Mistura said in Brussels
last week, the Assad regime risks a pyrrhic victory unless it
and its backers engage in a genuine political process. Only
this can deliver reconciliation and the restoration of Syria
as a prosperous, secure and stable state. The UK will
continue to support the efforts of the UN, under the Geneva
process, to this end.
The obstacles remain serious. The regime has shown no
inclination to engage seriously so far, and the Security
Council remains divided. But the international community
cannot, and should not, resign itself to failure. The costs
for Syria, for the region, and for the wider international
rules-based system are too great. The Foreign Secretary was
in Paris last Thursday to discuss with key partners how we
should intensify our efforts to bring this conflict, and its
causes, to an end. While we actively work to find a political
solution, the UK will continue to stand alongside the people
of Syria and the region to do what we can to alleviate human
suffering, and to demand immediate access for aid workers to
all those who need our help. I commend this statement to the
House.
5.40 pm
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(Edmonton)
(Lab/Co-op)
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, and I thank
her for giving me advance sight of it. Let me join her in
expressing my anger at the attacks on aid workers in South
Sudan. Let me also congratulate her on her appointment
today as Minister for Women and Equalities.
The war in Syria has gone on for more than eight years, and
100,000 civilians have died, 1 million have been injured
and 12 million displaced. For all our differences, I
believe that we in this House are united in our desire to
stand shoulder to shoulder with the Syrian people and, as
fellow humans, to help to bring an end to their suffering.
Turning first to money, I welcome the fact that last week
the UK pledged £250 million more in new funding to help
Syria. That can sound like a lot, but the truth is that
last week’s pledging conference in Brussels raised less
than half the $9 billion needed. It also raised less than
was raised at a similar conference this time last year.
Indeed, Mark Lowcock, the UN’s emergency relief
co-ordinator, has warned that we have a $5 billion
shortfall, and that the UN will now have to make hard
choices. The Prime Minister of Lebanon, where 25% of the
population are refugees, has warned that his country
remains “a big refugee camp”. Without enough funding,
tensions are rising in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, so
will the Secretary of State say more about how the UK
intends to help to fill that remaining shortfall, and about
what plans exist to increase our own contribution? Given
that delays have been reported in the United States’
pledge, and that pledges from the Gulf states have so far
been less than was hoped, what assurances can she give the
House that she is putting extra pressure on those others
also to come to the table?
It is not all about the money, however—it is not enough
just to get the chequebook out. Without a political
solution, our aid budget will only ever have a limited
impact, so what are the Government doing to show political
leadership in securing a ceasefire? After they ignored the
UN and joined US airstrikes, will the Government now
recommit to a joint multilateral solution to peace through
the UN, even if that seems difficult? Let us remember that,
a fortnight ago, this House debated the decision by the
Prime Minister to bomb Syria without even coming to this
House for a vote. We were told then that the action was
intended to alleviate human suffering. Will the Secretary
of State tell us whether her Department ever carried out an
assessment of the likely humanitarian impact of the
airstrikes before they were authorised by the Prime
Minister?
Opening the chequebook overseas counts for nothing unless
we also live up to our responsibilities to Syrian refugees
here in the UK. The Government promised to take 20,000
Syrian refugees by 2020, yet the UK is taking just 4% of
the number of refugees received by Germany, and the numbers
across European countries are dwarfed by those in Jordan,
Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. We are not even able to hit the
Dubs amendment target of 3,000 children, and that is
pitiful.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth
(Stephen Doughty) also reported recently that his
constituents were unable to host and help Syrian refugees
because of the logistical and bureaucratic hurdles set up
by the Home Office. That pattern is being replicated up and
down the country. If the Government can prioritise targets
to remove people from this country, why are we not able to
hit a simple target to let in a handful of refugee children
from countries such as Syria? Will the Secretary of State
please sit down with the new Home Secretary and urge him to
remove these barriers straight away so that we can, at the
very least, hit the UK’s very modest targets for resettling
Syrian refugees and children?
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I thank the hon. Lady for her warm words at the start of
her response. We are doing many things to ensure that we
and the international community have the funding we need to
alleviate the immense suffering being endured by the Syrian
people. The first part of our contribution is obviously
asking others to lean in, so my right hon. Friend the
Minister for the Middle East and I have been asking other
nations to do that. We obviously heavily co-ordinate our
efforts with UN agencies and with their asks. We are also
leading the charge on reforming the humanitarian system. We
lose about $1 billion a year globally because the system
does not work efficiently, so if we can get it to work
better, we will have more money to deploy where we need it.
We are also helping in other areas. To give one example, I
was recently in Jordan looking at the costs of healthcare;
particular prices must be paid for vaccines for refugees.
We are looking at the specific cost issues for the
countries that are shouldering an immense burden and at
what we can do to try to alleviate those costs or to get
more sensible pricing systems in place.
We are also working with the multilateral system; as the
hon. Lady will know, the capital replenishment of the World
Bank was a huge success for the UK’s development goals.
That formed part of our desire to ensure that the countries
that are shouldering burdens, specifically Jordan and
Lebanon, have their contributions taken into account when
decisions are being made. I am pleased to be working with
the president of the World Bank and Bill Gates on being
human capital champions and on ensuring that all
multilaterals are making decisions about which nations are
stepping up and not only funding their own people, but
supporting refugees from other nations.
The hon. Lady mentioned the UN, and we all know about the
problems we have with the Security Council and Russia’s
veto. We must find other ways of working and to encourage
people to come to the table, and we have to put pressure on
Russia and Iran to play their parts in getting the
situation resolved.
As for the air strikes, their purpose was to degrade and
deter the use of chemical weapons, as the hon. Lady knows.
The vast majority of Members across the House recognise why
they were a good thing for the people of Syria, for our own
safety and for trying to ensure international norms. One
reason why we are not able to share information with the
House in advance of such strikes is that we can only make
the judgment to which she referred when we know what the
targets are. We can only make a judgment about whether a
strike will be legal, effective in its objective and
compliant with our targeting policies if we know what the
targets are, and we cannot share that information with the
House for understandable reasons.
We have chosen to support millions in the region. We are
taking a number of refugees into the UK, but we are
supporting millions of individuals not just with the basics
of life, but by trying to ensure that they have some kind
of future, particularly with our investment in education.
Since I became Secretary of State, I have set up several
new groups with the Home Office, both recently and last
year, to consider issues in which there is Home Office
interest, including the administration of the situation of
refugees. For example, if people caught up in the Rohingya
crisis have relatives here, we are trying to be proactive
and to ensure that we are doing everything we can to get
sensible things to happen.
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(New Forest East)
(Con)
I must express disappointment that, while rightly damning
the monsters in the Syrian Government, my right hon. Friend
still has nothing to say about the maniacs—the
jihadists—who lead most of the armed opposition. Can she
tell us whether this aid will be supplied only to displaced
Syrians outside Syria or, if it will be supplied to Syrians
within Syrian territory, whether it will be supplied to
Assad-controlled territory, to territory controlled by the
armed jihadist opposition or to territory controlled by the
only people we have ever been able to support
militarily—the Kurdish-led Syrian democratic forces? Those
forces are currently under attack from Turkey, which she
has just described as one of our friends in the region.
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Turkey is a key NATO ally—I hope my right hon. Friend would
want me to describe it as such—and it is supporting an
enormous number of refugees. I very much understand his
concern on this issue. The way we distribute aid is based
on need, and we obviously have protections to ensure it is
distributed as it should be. The main obstacle to that
happening is access to particular areas, but aid is not
being given to terrorist groups and it is not being abused
in that way.
Most of the armed opposition are now dead. Back when we had
the vote on the Floor of the House in 2013, there were 12
groups that nobody could describe as extremists or
terrorists, and they were the best hope for a peaceful and
good outcome to this situation. We are now faced with a
situation in which Assad will continue his campaign,
despite no restrictions being put on negotiations by the
opposition groups. The only peaceful outcome in Syria will
be with the consent of all parties, which I am afraid does
not point to Assad remaining there.
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Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP)
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her
statement. I wish her well with her new ministerial
responsibilities, and I associate the Scottish National
party with her words on the aid workers in South Sudan.
The Syrian conflict is making the Schleswig-Holstein
question look positively simple by comparison, but there
are a number of questions that I hope the Secretary of
State will be able to help me with this evening. Can she
tell us a bit more about the new sanctions she has
announced? Will they target the Syrian Scientific Studies
and Research Centre and the network of shady bank accounts
connected to it? Will she seek to address the large
imbalance between the number of UK and EU sanctions and the
number of sanctions brought in by the US Treasury? The US
Treasury has almost 300 sanctions, but I understand there
are fewer than 30 from the United Kingdom.
Can the Secretary of State tell us how she plans to
strengthen the chemical weapons convention and the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons?
Isopropyl alcohol and hexamine are required to make sarin
gas, but neither of those two components is covered by the
chemical weapons convention. Are there plans to address
that? Can she tell us a bit more about the US aid imitative
she mentioned in her statement and how much new money will
go to it?
The UN Security Council is tasked with underpinning global
security, and it worries all of us that it is now
effectively an entirely broken instrument. Although, like
the Secretary of State, I hold no candle for the Russian
veto, if the veto is dead for Moscow, it is dead for every
permanent member of the Security Council. Given that with
the airstrikes the UK Government have essentially acted,
whether we like it or not, outwith the norms she says the
Government have acted to defend, what is the long-term plan
to bring back some decorum, some decency and some order to
the UN Security Council?
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Mr Speaker
It is always in the interest of our proceedings that they
should be entirely intelligible to those who attend or who
watch on television. If memory serves me correctly, only
three people knew the answer to the Schleswig-Holstein
question: one died, a second went mad and the third forgot
the answer.
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Thank you, Mr Speaker. I hope to do rather better in my
reply to the hon. Member for Glasgow South (Stewart Malcolm
McDonald).
Whether through financial levers or through having other
options in our humanitarian toolbox, we need to be able to
do more in future. When I was a Defence Minister, I was fed
up of coming to the House to say why we could not do
airdrops; as Secretary of State for International
Development, I am fed up of coming to the House to say why
we cannot protect people better. We are a smart nation. We
have great brains in our armed forces and in our civil
contingencies, and we work very closely with our US allies.
We have to come up with some better capabilities, and I am
determined that we will do so.
We also want to focus on financial levers, and we are
working with the EU and other international partners to
develop them. I cannot give details on that today, but it
is in train. I will update the House at a later date.
The US aid initiative is a joint partnership with the UK.
Initially, we are each putting in £5 million to invite
competition. We are asking people to come in with ideas,
and we will then look at and develop those ideas, which
could be about protecting civilians, getting power or water
supplies back up or getting aid to individual people.
Additionally, we will set up a humanitarian innovation hub
in the UK. My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle
East will lead on that, and it will use the best brains
from across many sectors to come up with solutions that we
can use, and that may help our defence and civil
contingency capabilities.
On the UN, huge efforts are being made by our dedicated
team in New York. I have spent time with them and I have
visited them, and they are making a sterling effort. We
need to keep pressure on Russia and Iran, which is the only
way we will get things back to how we want them to work. In
the meantime, we have to find other ways of making sure
that we adhere to international norms. We will all be safer
if that is the case.
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(Reigate) (Con)
Is any expenditure from the conflict, stability and
security fund planned for Idlib province? If so, what are
the objectives of that expenditure and how will it be
accounted for?
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Expenditure from that fund has already been put into Idlib
in particular. I am looking to do more with DFID’s funding
in Idlib and in other areas that are next in the firing
line. We still have some access to four such areas, and I
can write to let my hon. Friend know exactly what
expenditure has come out of the CSSF.
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(Cardiff South and
Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement. I
associate myself with her comments about South Sudan, and I
put on the record my deep concern about today’s situation
in Kabul, where we have seen significant loss of life,
including journalists and others.
The Secretary of State talks about the importance of
humanitarian access. Given the issues we have seen with
Turkey’s operations in and around Afrin, and Turkey’s role
in controlling many of the crucial border points around
Idlib where, unfortunately, we expect there to be
significant military action in the near future, what
conversations have she and her ministerial colleagues had
with the Turkish Government at the highest levels to ensure
that those border posts are open for humanitarian access?
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My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East has
spoken to the Turkish Government and to a number of
individuals at the UN. We want this situation to
de-escalate. It is, at the very least, a distraction in the
fight against Daesh, as I reported to the House in the
quarterly counter-Daesh update a few weeks ago. We remain
concerned, and we will continue our diplomatic efforts to
de-escalate the situation.
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(Wokingham) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State confirm that, by helping
refugees closer to Syria, rather than inviting them here,
we can help many, many more people? As those refugees will
obviously want, in due course, to return to their country,
is there any news on possible progress on a diplomatic
solution?
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My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are able to
help millions of individuals, and it is not just about
providing a safe haven; it is also about providing them
with education and skills training to ensure that when they
are able to return to their homes—and we hope that will be
sooner rather than later—they are equipped to pick up their
lives as swiftly as possible.
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(Carshalton and Wallington)
(LD)
The last chapter of the history of Syria’s destruction has
already been written: it is the complete annihilation of
Idlib by barrel bombs delivered by Assad’s murderous
forces, backed up by the equally murderous Russians. What
can the UK Government do to try to avoid tens of thousands
of additional deaths in Idlib? Will the Government expand
the family reunion scheme and increase the number of Syrian
refugees who are able to come to the UK, to protect more
vulnerable people?
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The right hon. Gentleman is right, in that we think Idlib
and some other areas are going to be next hit. We have done
a tremendous amount to forward deploy equipment to protect
individuals—everything from sandbags to personal protection
equipment. He will understand that in some areas access is
extremely difficult and there are enormous numbers of
people. Our priority is to protect those individuals who
can protect others—the civilian defence workers and medics
in those areas. Of course, we urge those who are in control
of those events, who do not have to bomb their own people,
to desist from doing so and to come to the negotiating
table.
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Mrs (Mid Derbyshire)
(Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on her appointment as
Minister for Women and Equalities, in addition to her
current job, and I know she feels passionately about that.
An estimated 478 health facilities have either been
destroyed or attacked since the conflict began. What is she
doing to make sure that vital medical care can be given?
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In addition to the protection for those individuals I have
just mentioned, part of our funding will be going to train
thousands of medics in advanced trauma care. It is vital
that we keep health services running, provide medical
consultations and keep pushing for access for medical
supplies. I am afraid that my hon. Friend is right to say
that hospitals, medical facilities and aid convoys
containing medical equipment have been targeted by the
regime.
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Mr (Bury South) (Ind)
I congratulate the right hon. Lady on her new
responsibilities. May I use this opportunity to pay tribute
to the work of St Bernadette’s parish in my constituency,
which is developing resources to enable it to host a Syrian
refugee family? In the context of the debate about the
Windrush scandal and a “hostile environment”, many people
reasonably ask why, following the Dubs amendment in the
House of Lords, this country is not fulfilling its moral
responsibility to Syrian child refugees. How many Syrian
child refugees have we taken and what are her plans for the
future?
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On the resettlement of vulnerable individuals, we have
taken about half of our commitment to date—just over 10,000
individuals. I fully appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s urging
us to do all we can to ensure people are safe. We have
chosen to prioritise those who are extremely vulnerable and
in need of a particular health treatment, or those who are
vulnerable for some other reason, but we are supporting
millions of refugees. We are the major contributor to that,
taking care not just of people’s basic needs, but of
education. I recently visited some of the education
facilities in countries in the region, and Britain should
be very proud of what we are doing to assist people. I
visited a school that is particularly focused on children
who have disabilities and have been injured in the shelling
in Syria. UK aid is doing great work. We are helping not
just a few thousand individuals in the UK but millions in
the region.
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(North Thanet)
(Con)
In her opening statement, my right hon. Friend referred to
the “barbaric attack in Douma on innocent civilians,
including young children”. Last week, in the margins of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr
Slutsky, who is Mr Putin’s spokesman on earth, whined that
the Russians only faced obligations, not rights. Does my
right hon. Friend agree that the Russian Federation has
absolutely no right either to use or promote the use of
chemical weapons, and that if the Russians want to be
accepted in the civilised world, they should join the UK
and others in seeking a political solution, rather than
exacerbating the suffering?
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I could not agree more. There is a very good reason why
these weapons have been outlawed: they cause immense
suffering. This regime is choosing not only to bomb its own
people, but to exterminate them in the most cruel ways
imaginable. Any nation that facilitates that should be
ashamed of itself. I do not think the Russian people would
approve of that kind of behaviour, and the Russian
Government should look to their conscience and to the
security of their own people, because by breaking these
international norms they are putting their own people in
danger, too.
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Mr Speaker
I cannot say I have heard of this Slutsky fellow, but I am
sure that the hon. Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale)
can take it upon himself to educate the gentleman—very
useful.
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(Barrow and Furness)
(Lab/Co-op)
The statement is welcome, and I hope it will be followed by
further regular and frequent updates. The Secretary of
State knows that many of us are pushing for far stronger
actions than sanctions to deal with the full spectrum of
Assad’s atrocities, but when she talks about “A new
sanctions regime against those responsible for chemical
weapons use”, do we firmly put Iran and Syria among those
“responsible”? Will she consider a wider sanctions regime,
covering siege, starvation and deliberate targeting of
civilians, as well as chemical weapons use?
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Yes, I can give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. He will
understand why we do not want to make announcements until
we are ready to act on these matters, but we are looking
closely at what we think would be effective and what will
deter future action. He is right to say that chemical
weapons are against international norms, but barrel bombing
children is against international norms, too.
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(Lichfield)
(Con)
Given that we had an opportunity in 2013 to make a real
difference but it was opportunistically rejected, may I say
to my right hon. Friend that she should not take any advice
from the Labour party? To ask her a specific question, some
500 medical centre and general practice buildings have been
destroyed; what is her Department doing—is there anything
it can do—to restore medical aid in Syria?
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My hon. Friend will know that the most appalling things
have happened. Even when co-ordinates have been given over
with a view to ensuring that strikes avoid medical centres,
they have been used to attack those sites. We saw the
report of the surgeon David Nott, who was conducting an
operation on an injured Syrian child down the line from
London and who found that the signal he was using to
perform that operation was used to target a hospital. This
is why we have launched these new challenges, calling on
people who have expertise, technical know-how and great
ideas to enable us to be ahead of individuals who choose to
unleash this barbaric behaviour on their own people. We
want to do better. We want to have more options in the
future to protect people.
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(Ilford South)
(Lab/Co-op)
Last week, members of the Foreign Affairs Committee were in
New York for discussions with the United Nations
Secretary-General, members of the Security Council and
other UN member states. It is clear that far from ignoring
the UN, our ambassador Karen Pierce and her colleagues are
making prodigious efforts to get progress on Syria. The
Secretary of State referred to the 12 Russian vetoes. Given
that there will continue to be Russian vetoes, what are we
going to do when Assad carries out mass murder of civilians
in Idlib? Are we going to walk by on the other side or will
we have another effort, with our coalition partners, France
and the United States and others, to stop these atrocities?
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The hon. Gentleman will know that one reason why we took
action against the use of chemical weapons a few weeks
ago—as well as to degrade Assad’s capability—was to deter
that kind of action in future. The hon. Gentleman’s support
and strong stance on humanitarian issues have strengthened
that message. The fact that Members from all parties have
condemned not only the chemical weapons attacks but the use
of conventional weapons against civilians, and have
expressed our resolve that those things should not happen,
will have helped that message. The hon. Gentleman will
understand why I cannot talk today about specific future
action that we or our allies might take, but Assad and his
backers should be under no illusions: we will not tolerate
such breaches of international norms.
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(Bexleyheath and
Crayford) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement and congratulate
her on her new ministerial responsibilities. What
assessment has she made of the recent levels of religious
persecution in Syria? What steps is she taking to ensure
that persecuted religious minorities have access to
humanitarian aid?
-
That is an important issue. In the new development offer
that I unveiled a couple of weeks ago, I included new
programming specifically in respect of the protection of
civilians being persecuted for their religious beliefs. A
great deal of protection can be afforded to people who are
being persecuted—whether it is for their religious beliefs
or they are women and children, who are particularly
vulnerable—by having good reporting mechanisms in the way
we deliver aid. If the recipients of aid know who to go to
when, for example, aid is being withheld, we will be able
to stop these things much quicker, so we are looking into
that.
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(Penistone and
Stocksbridge) (Lab)
I supported the action against the use of chemical weapons
the other week, and I consider any failure to take action
to be appeasement in the face of the atrocities committed
by the Assad regime and the increasing levels of aggression
from the Russian state. My question relates to the White
Helmets, who have played a significant part in saving tens
of thousands of lives in Syria. What support will the
Government continue to give to the White Helmets, and in
what form?
-
First, I thank the hon. Lady for the stance that she took.
The sentiments I expressed in my response to the hon.
Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) also apply to her and
to many other Opposition Members. The White Helmets have
done a phenomenal job, and I very much regret some of the
false propaganda that has been put around about their work.
We are supplying them with financial assistance and, as I
said, we are looking to forward deploy as much protective
equipment as we can. It is people like that, along with
medical teams, who we really need to ensure are protected
in the four areas that I think will be targeted next.
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(Ayr, Carrick and
Cumnock) (Con)
Will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to
Syria’s neighbours that have taken in refugees? Will she
set out what support she is offering to those countries to
undertake what must be an enormous humanitarian task?
-
In addition to the aid that we are supplying and, as I
mentioned, the other things we are trying to do to help
those countries with the costs that they are having to
bear, we need to help them in other ways. That is why we
have announced the conference with Jordan—an amazing
country with a huge amount to offer. We want to help Jordan
to grow its economy, as well as to enable it to continue
the tremendous generosity and hospitality that it is
showing to refugees.
-
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement and for
highlighting so very well the suffering of millions of
Syrians. The Syrian Christian population is estimated by
Open Doors to have halved since 2011, down from 2 million
to 1 million, and the number of displaced in Syria stands
at 6.7 million. Will the Secretary of State confirm that
the DFID aid has been delivered to where the Christian
minorities are now located? Has it reached large numbers of
the displaced?
-
As I have said, we are completely reliant on what access we
can get to certain areas. We cannot get aid convoys into
some areas into which we wish to get them. I assure the
hon. Gentleman that in the mechanisms and partners with
which we work to deliver aid on the ground, we are very
conscious of these issues and we are strengthening those
systems all the time. I have met individuals who are
particularly concerned about protecting those who may be
being persecuted for their religious beliefs. As I said, I
am announcing some new programming to give us more options
on that front.
-
(Henley) (Con)
Last week, like my hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet
(Sir Roger Gale), I was at the Council of Europe, where I
spoke about Jordan’s effort to educate so many Syrian
refugees. What is the Secretary of State going to do to
help with the crisis in early years education in that
country?
-
We are doing a range of things. As a general principle, I
am keen that, whether in respect of humanitarian or more
traditional forms of economic development, we join up the
different programmes that we run—that we join up our
maternal health provision with our early years provision
and our education provision—and that we build systems as we
go. There are many things that we can do to strengthen the
healthcare and education systems of those countries in the
region that are hosting refugees. I hope that one day we
will be able to make similar contributions and give similar
technical advice to Syria.
-
(Sutton and Cheam)
(Con)
As a Government, we should resettle the people who are most
vulnerable and those with the most complex needs, but the
fact is that to go beyond that risks diverting resources
from literally thousands of individuals, and driving people
towards the human traffickers and the perilous journey
across the Mediterranean. Does my right hon. Friend agree
that the strategy to support those in the region will allow
Syrian refugees to go home safely when it is safe for them
to do so?
-
Yes, and my hon. Friend enables me to make a further point,
which is that many of the refugees who are resident in
these host countries are not there passively receiving aid,
but are actively contributing to those societies. They are
running businesses and engaging in economic activity. We
need to ensure that people who have been there for many
years and may remain for some time have the best possible
future. It is right that we in the UK take in those who
need additional protections and additional care and
support.
-
(Crawley) (Con)
The Syrian civil war is obviously controversial, as is the
UK’s international aid budget. What more can the Department
do to promote the good aid work that the UK is doing in
respect of the Syrian conflict? As the Secretary of State
mentioned, we are the second largest bilateral donor, after
the United States.
-
The public are actually very supportive of humanitarian
relief; it is something that they support uncontroversially.
I know that because I see how much they give voluntarily
through Disasters Emergency Committee appeals and so forth.
We have to give the public greater confidence in what we do
with their money. It is not that people are ungenerous or
that they do not believe that the UK has an actual interest
in building trading partners for the future; they are just a
bit suspicious about how we have been going about it. That is
why a couple of weeks ago I set out a new development offer
that not only delivers the global goals better, but
explicitly explains why that is in the UK’s interests.
-
(Banbury) (Con)
What progress has been made on working with smaller partners
in Syria, such as the very brave medics supported by the
Hands Up Foundation who are working in Idlib at this very
minute? Will the Secretary of State join me in reminding
Government and Opposition Members that Singing for Syrians is
not just for Christmas and that the money donated now can go
straight to Idlib?
-
May I first pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all that she
and other colleagues have done through this amazing
organisation? I know how keenly she feels the plight of those
on the ground when there has been an attack in an area in
which some of her team are working. The Department has made
good progress with the launch of the small charities scheme,
but I would like us to go further. Other Members have
mentioned organisations in their own constituencies. We have
tremendous organisations up and down the country, which
contribute a huge amount not just in financial support and
aid, but in friendship to those in the developing world.
-
(Torbay) (Con)
I welcome the statement by the Secretary of State, not least
what she said about the work that we are doing with our
allies given the way that, on the one hand, Russia and its
apologists across the world have been saying that we should
respect the UN, while, on the other, making sure that the UN
cannot do anything effective. Can she reassure me and tell me
how, in the long term, we can bring to justice some of these
people who have committed such appalling crimes, given that
Russia is likely to continue to veto any reference to the
International Criminal Court?
-
My hon. Friend raises a very important point. One of the
sessions that I took part in at the Brussels conference was
with civil society and we looked at how we will collect
evidence and hold people to account for their actions. Some
of our funding will support an international initiative to do
just that, and it is vital that we do so. We should do
everything in our power to stop the sorts of things that we
have seen over the past eight years happening ever again.
-
Sir (New Forest West)
(Con)
With respect to promoting our aid effort, as raised by my
hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith), is my right
hon. Friend aware of anyone who spends 99.3% of their income
on themselves?
-
I can see that I will have to deploy my hon. Friend the
Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) to make the case for what we
do. We do sometimes focus on that number of 0.7%, but we
should actually focus on what that money does. If we can
explain this better to the British public, who enable us to
help people such as Syria’s children, they would be very
proud of what the funding does.
-
(Kingswood) (Con)
I congratulate the Secretary of State on her appointment as
the Women and Equalities Minister. Does she agree that
protecting women and girls in Syria and in the region should
be a priority, and will she set out her Department’s specific
action in that regard?
-
The needs of women and girls are at the heart of our approach
to humanitarian efforts. We have enshrined that in a
tri-departmental policy with the Foreign Office and the
Ministry of Defence. It is vital, particularly in conflict
and protracted crises, that we ensure that women and girls
are shaping our humanitarian effort and that their needs are
absolutely at the centre of what we do, which means that they
are at the heart of our doctrine.
-
(Aberdeen South)
(Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree with Haian Dukhan, a PhD
student at the University of St Andrews, who left Syria in
2012 because of the two evils of President Assad and Daesh
and who described our action in Syria as “necessary and
legitimate” because Assad had crossed a red line? Does she
share my view that our response to the crisis in Syria also
confirms that our aid budget is in our strategic national
interest?
-
Clearly, we are involved in a lot of economic development to
produce the trading partners for the UK of the future, but
what we do on the humanitarian front is the hallmark of a
great nation, and we should be very proud of that. I know
that the British public are very proud of our humanitarian
work.
-
(East Renfrewshire)
(Con)
I recently met Reverend Dr Grant Barclay of Orchardhill
Parish Church in Giffnock and he said that many of his
congregation have felt deeply affected by the humanitarian
situation in Syria and want to help. How best can church and
indeed community groups support the work that the Secretary
of State and her Department are doing in response to this
conflict?
-
There are many ways that they can help. Clearly, many
community groups raise funds and give aid directly. There is
also a lot we can do to show our support, particularly when
groups such as the White Helmets are under attack. We can
ensure that the truth is out there, we can confront people
who decide to peddle falsehoods about what is actually
happening on the ground and we can show our support.
Ultimately, though, it is the practical needs that we must
address. I hope that, if we can develop the small charities
scheme, groups such as my hon. Friend mentioned will be able
to benefit from UK aid money.
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