David Lammy MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Over 63,000 people have now lost their lives and well over 100,000 are injured as a result of this war, so the hon. Member is right to put that front and centre. She will recognise that we made a decision about suspending any negotiations for a new trade agreement a few weeks ago.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I remind the right hon. Gentleman of the letter that President Abbas wrote to President Macron, where he was clear for the first time that there can be no role for Hamas. We will make the assessment on recognition in the coming weeks, but clearly the E1 settlement has moved the dial even further away from where we were a few weeks ago. Recognition is a process.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I recognise the experience that the right hon. Gentleman brings to the Chamber. He will have heard the Prime Minister raise those issues with President Trump in Scotland, and I reassure him that I raised them with Vice President Vance in Kent. I got into a slight problem with a certain sort of fishing licence, but I did raise those issues as well.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  It is just wrong to say that the Government have been passive in relation to the ICC. We fund the ICC and continue to support the ICC. I think I raised the ICC in my second meeting with Secretary of State Rubio. We work very closely with our Dutch colleagues in particular on the ICC. We have been crystal clear on the importance of international humanitarian law. I am afraid the right hon. Gentleman is wrong on this issue.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks, particularly on Iran. He is absolutely right to place at the centre the 15,000 people who have been injured in Gaza while simply seeking aid, and the more than 2,000 who have died seeking aid. It is totally unacceptable, and he is right to remind the House about the position of the hostage families, who are crystal clear that they do not want to see further military endeavour and operation in Gaza City. What they want is a ceasefire, and they fear that further military endeavour will actually harm their loved ones further, not succeed in bringing them home. The hon. Gentleman criticises our position on recognition. I ask him to reflect on that, because it must be right that the Government continue to give diplomacy an opportunity as we head to the UN alongside other partners. Surely he would want us to be working with our French, Australian and Canadian partners as we head to that gathering at UNGA, and surely he would want to see the Israelis commit to a ceasefire, commit to a process and end the war. All of that is what we are seeking to do as we make an assessment of where we have got to in the coming weeks. I reassure him that of course I raise the issue of Gaza with all levels of the US Administration. I did raise the situation in Gaza with Vice President Vance earlier in the summer and with Secretary of State Rubio, and I have spoken to envoy Steve Witkoff in the last 24 hours to get an update on this fast-moving situation. Direct sales of F-35s to Israel are banned, and the hon. Gentleman knows that we ban arms that could go to the IDF for use in Gaza.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that question. He will know that, alongside the Home Secretary, we commissioned work from Jonathan Hall on the specific issue of state threats. We will be coming forward with further plans in the coming months.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  As I have said, I have spoken to Secretary of State Rubio, Envoy Steve Witkoff and Vice-President Vance about these issues. I leave discussions with the President of the United States to our great Prime Minister.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I make no apology for trying to affect behaviour on the ground as we head to the UN General Assembly meeting and for giving diplomacy a chance. It still has an opportunity to work and that is why we did it.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I reassure my hon. Friend that the good news is that the aid we have supported is getting in. Principally, that has been of medical supplies, addressing the dire situation in Gaza. We have also been able to work with the World Food Programme. The World Food Programme appears to be the UN agency that is having the most effect in delivering aid on the ground. It is not sufficient, but it is having some effect. I will be in the region in the coming days discussing these issues in further detail.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The International Criminal Court is a fundamental part of the architecture that was set up after the atrocities of the second world war. The United Kingdom played a central role in that. That is why this Government—and I hope any Government—remain absolutely committed to the ICC and the International Court of Justice, and to their good and important work, which they must do free from and unfettered by political interference.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I shall make a statement on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Iran. In Gaza, the situation on the ground is unimaginably bleak. Horrifying images and accounts will be seared into the minds of colleagues across this House. They are almost impossible to put into words, but we can and must be precise with our language, because on 22 August the United Nations-backed IPC mechanism confirmed what we are witnessing: famine—famine in Gaza city; famine in its surrounding neighbourhoods now spreading across the wider territory; famine which, if unchecked, will spiral into widespread starvation. This was foreseen: it is the terrible conclusion of the obstacles we have warned about for over six months. Since 1 July, over 300 people have died from malnutrition, including 119 children. More than 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from hunger by June next year. This is not a natural disaster; it is a man-made famine in the 21st century, and I am outraged by the Israeli Government’s refusal to allow in sufficient aid. We need a massive humanitarian response to prevent more deaths, crucial non-governmental organisations, humanitarians and health workers to be allowed to operate, and stockpiles of aid on Gaza’s borders to be released. In the past three months, more than 2,000 Gazans have been killed trying to feed their families, and Hamas themselves are exploiting the chaos and deliberately starving Israeli hostages for abhorrent political purposes. I know that these words of condemnation, echoed across legislatures all over the world, are not enough, but be in no doubt: we have acted as a country where we can. We restored funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. We suspended arms exports that could be used in Gaza. We signed a landmark agreement with the Palestinian Authority. We stood up for the independence of international courts. We have delivered three sanctions packages on violent settlers and far-right Israeli Ministers for incitement. We have suspended trade negotiations with the Israeli Government. We are at the forefront of the international community’s work to plan for a stable, post-conflict peace. We have now provided more than £250 million in development assistance over the past two years. Today, we are going further. I can announce an additional £15 million of aid and medical care for Gaza and the region. We continue to work alongside regional partners, including Egypt and Jordan, to enable the United Nations and non-governmental organisations to ensure that aid reaches those most in need. Brave medics in Gaza tell us that essential medicines are running out and they cannot operate safely. That is why we are funding UK-Med, whose field hospitals have treated more than 600,000 Gazans. It is also why we are funding the World Health Organisation in Egypt to treat thousands of evacuated Gazan people. Meanwhile, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary said earlier, we are working with the World Health Organisation to get critically ill and injured children into the UK, where they will receive specialist NHS treatment. The first patients are expected to arrive in the UK in the coming weeks. Extracting people from a war zone is, of course, complex and dangerous, and it relies entirely on Israeli permissions. I am pressing the Israeli Government for that to happen as quickly as possible. We are also supporting brilliant students granted Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Chevening scholarships and other scholarships to escape Gaza, so that they can take up their places for the coming academic year. I recognise that those things only touch the edges of this catastrophe. We all know that there is only one way out: an immediate ceasefire that would see the unconditional release by Hamas of all hostages and a transformation in the delivery of aid. We know it, our US and European allies know it, and our Gulf partners know it, too. I am working night and day with them to deliver a ceasefire and a wider political process to deliver long-term peace. To make a ceasefire last, we need a monitoring mechanism, the disarmament of Hamas and a new governance framework for Gaza. That is the focus of our intense diplomacy in the region. In contrast, further military operations in Gaza City will only prolong and deepen the crisis. Together with our partners, we demand an immediate halt to the operation. Each week brings new horrors. Last week’s double strike on Nasser hospital—one of Gaza’s last remaining major health facilities—killed 20 people, including five journalists. I remind Israel once again that international law requires the protection of healthcare workers, journalists and civilians. These actions will not end the war, and they will not bring the hostages home, let alone make them safer, as hostage families have recognised. Such actions will sow despair and anger across the region for generations. In the west bank, the Israeli Government are tightening their stranglehold on the Palestinian economy and continue to approve illegal settlement construction, including just recently in the E1 area east of Jerusalem. That would erect a physical barrier to the contiguous Palestinian state, and it must not happen. In July, I described before the UN General Assembly our intention to recognise the state of Palestine later this month, unless the Israeli Government take substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commit to a long-term sustainable peace. That commitment responds to the current crisis, but stems from our historic responsibility to the region’s security, reaching back over a century to the Balfour declaration. As I said last month in New York, I am deeply proud that it was a British Foreign Secretary who helped establish a homeland for the Jewish people, but the same declaration promised that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights” of the Palestinian people. Those rights are more under threat than at any point in the past century. To those who say recognition rewards Hamas or threatens Israeli security, it does neither. Recognition is rooted in the principle of a two-state solution, which Hamas rejects. We have been clear that any Palestinian state should be demilitarised. Indeed, President Abbas has confirmed that in writing. We see no contradiction between the two-state solution and our deep commitment to Israeli security, because security comes from stable borders, not indefinite occupation. Before I finish, I would also like to update the House on Iran. On 28 August, the UK, along with France and Germany, triggered the snapback mechanism under UN Security Council resolution 2231. That means that if no new agreement is reached within 30 days, the sanctions that were lifted under the Iran nuclear deal—the joint comprehensive plan of action—will come back into force. Those wide-ranging sanctions include a full arms embargo and restrictions on Iran’s nuclear, missile and drone programme. It was not a decision we took lightly. For years, we have worked with international partners to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The 2015 deal was meant to do just that, but Iran has repeatedly undermined the agreement. Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is now 40 times over the limit set by the JCPOA. Despite that clear escalation, we have made every effort over years of negotiations to bring Iran back to compliance. Those efforts have continued in recent months. I have urged Foreign Minister Araghchi to de-escalate and choose diplomacy. In July, we offered Iran more time if it agreed to return to negotiations with the US and restore full access to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Last month, I warned Iran that time was short and we would have little choice but to trigger snapback. I regret to inform the House that Iran has not complied with its legal obligations, nor chosen the path of diplomacy, so we have had no choice but to act. I have long been clear that I will not allow snapback to expire without a durable and comprehensive deal. It would be unacceptable to allow this issue to fall off the UN Security Council agenda, despite the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear programme. Snapback is not the end of diplomacy, as Secretary Rubio has also recently underlined. Iran can still meet our conditions. It can restore full IAEA access and address our concerns about its stockpile and enrichment, and it can return to negotiations. Alongside our partners, I will continue to urge Iran to choose that path. In the worst of times, this Government will continue to take all the steps that we can to alleviate suffering, to help bring regional conflict to an end and to create the conditions for long-term peace and security. We will not rest until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, the hostages are returned, and a flood of aid reaches those in desperate need. Despite the obstacles before us, we will work with partners to preserve the two-state solution. I commend this statement to the House.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Can I just be clear? There is a lot of mendacity in some of the sort of stuff we see on TikTok. We have stopped the sale of arms to Israel. We have stopped the direct sales of F-35s to Israel. Germany only just recently made the decision that we made last September. The UK represents 1% of sales; 90% are Germany and the US system. There are many other Governments that supply and that have not made the decisions we have made. On recognition, we will continue to work with partners as we head towards the UN General Assembly and make the necessary assessments.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for continuing to press those issues over so many months on behalf of her constituents. Goods from settlements not entitled to tariff and trade preferences are important considerations. UK business guidance outlines clear risk to UK operators considering economic activity in the area.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman put his opening remarks very well, and I would accord with them. We need proper independent scrutiny of some of this behaviour. We did call for that, by the way, for the awful atrocity involving the World Central Kitchen staff, where British nationals lost their lives, and we await an update from the advocate general. I understand that the Israelis have said there will be an investigation into the incidents we saw last week, but there are many for which it is not clear that there will be an investigation. The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to put this centre stage, which is, of course, something I do when I speak to the Israeli Government.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I say to the hon. Lady that we banned arms sales that could be used in Israel back in September; Germany did so just a few weeks ago. We have had three rounds of sanctions against Israeli settlers and some of the expansion that we are seeing; France is yet to do the same. I ask her also to look at the amount of money that this Parliament and this Government have agreed to for aid, particularly for medical supplies— [ Interruption. ] The hon. Lady says there is more, but she does not quite articulate what more she believes we could do. We all want to bring this war to an end—we all want that. It is becoming a bit too easy to assert that without recognising the work that we are leading globally.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Absolutely; I will take that up.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I reassure my hon. Friend that we are working with our European counterparts. When I speak to Kaja Kallas and other European Foreign Ministers, what I get is the deep frustrations that she has heard me express in my answers. I remind my hon. Friend of the further £15 million that I have announced today to support humanitarian efforts, and in particular the supply of medicines in the area. The decisions that I announced at the UN a few weeks ago are absolutely not unilateral; they are working with other partners as we make an assessment on the ground of the situation prior to the UNGA.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I urge the hon. Gentleman to keep up to date with the latest. He will have seen that there have been announcements by Hamas on the terms for a ceasefire. We have not yet got that ceasefire; there remain disputes, for example, about the length of a ceasefire and withdrawal of the IDF from parts of Gaza. However, notwithstanding the concerns we all have, Hamas are in dialogue with our Egyptian and Qatari friends in particular.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right: the return of those hostages would see this war come to an end tomorrow. Recently, the sight of terribly malnourished hostages was chilling and horrendous, and heartbreaking for their families. I met hostage families just before the recess, and I will meet them again very shortly. He is right to centre them in his remarks.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I would refer to the remarks I have made before at this Dispatch Box. I recognise what is being said. I recognise the work of international scholars particularly, and the fine judgments that must be made by the ICC and the ICJ, but we have an important democratic principle that these decisions must be made by lawyers, and it is for Governments to act in the way that I have set out today.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  No conflicts are the same. That region has had numerous conflicts over the years. What we have seen over the past 23 months has been horrific. It is my job, as the country’s chief diplomat, to do everything I can, straining every sinew and working with colleagues, to bring the conflict to an end and keep my language diplomatic.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Yes, yes, yes. I have spent time in Bedouin villages that would be entirely gone as a result of these abysmal plans, so of course I will continue to work with partners to oppose them.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I am grateful, as I am sure the whole House is, for the update on that situation. I will not comment on the individual case, but when I was making the IHL assessment on a clear risk, which was previously referred to, one of the areas that I looked at closely and where I did believe there was a clear risk was the treatment of prisoners. I am therefore grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding the House about those humanitarian concerns.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I disagree with that last part. I simply refer my hon. Friend to what I have said. She will struggle to find another Government in the developed western world who have done more on sanctions than we have. Even our neighbours in France and the European Union have not done as much as us on this issue, and our record on humanitarian aid is considerable. She has heard what has been said about the issue of recognition.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I ask the hon. Gentleman to look in detail at export licences and how they work. As I have said, we are not sending arms to Israel. He will recognise, however, that we are continuing to export body armour that NGOs or journalists use on the ground in the west bank and indeed in Gaza. For the very reason he gave, I do not think that he would want us to stop.