David Lammy MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  With permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the middle east. I will begin with Syria. We have been horrified by the recent violence in the south, including civilian deaths. Clashes between Druze and Bedouin militias have quickly escalated into intense fighting, with involvement from Government forces and further Israeli strikes on the Syrian military. As I have said directly to Foreign Minister al-Shaibani, we want to see the fighting ended, civilians protected, and the rights of all Syrians upheld. The violence in Suwayda must be investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable. We want humanitarian access to be restored and for aid to be delivered, and Syria’s sovereignty must be respected. The UK can be proud of our support to the Syrian people over many years. A stable Syria matters to the UK’s national interest, in terms of terrorism, irregular migration and regional stability. We must work to prevent extremism, sectarianism or lawlessness taking hold now that Assad is gone. That is why we are backing a sustainable ceasefire. It is why we support an inclusive transition, and it is why I visited Damascus recently to support the new Government and to press them to meet their commitments. I will now turn to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is two and a half months since Prime Minister Netanyahu restarted offensive operations. The Israel Defence Forces have driven Palestinians out of 86% of Gaza, leaving around 2 million people trapped in an area scarcely over 20 square miles. Whatever this Israeli Government might claim, repeated displacement of so many civilians is not keeping them safe. In fact, it is quite the reverse. The new Israeli aid system is inhumane and dangerous, and it deprives Gazans of human dignity. It contradicts long-established humanitarian principles. It creates disorder that Hamas are now exploiting, with distribution points reduced from 400 to just four. It forces desperate civilians, children among them, to scramble unsafely for the essentials of life. It is a grotesque spectacle, wreaking a terrible human cost. Almost 1,000 civilians have been killed since May seeking aid, including 100 this weekend alone. There are near-daily reports of Israeli troops opening fire on people trying to access food. Israeli jets have hit women and children waiting for a health clinic to open. An Israeli drone has struck down children filling water containers, which Israeli officials blamed on a technical error. Hamas are of course contributing to the chaos and taking advantage of it, but I utterly condemn the killing of civilians seeking to meet their basic needs. The Israeli Government must answer: what possible military justification can there be for strikes that have killed desperate, starving children? What immediate actions are they taking to stop this litany of horrors? What will they do to hold those responsible to account? I am a steadfast supporter of Israel’s security and right to exist. I treasure the many connections between our peoples, and the horrors of 7 October must never be forgotten, but I firmly believe that the Israeli Government’s actions are doing untold damage to Israel’s standing in the world and undermining Israel’s long-term security. Netanyahu should listen to the Israeli people, some 82% of whom desperately want a ceasefire, and to the hostages’ families, because they know a ceasefire offers the best chance to bring their loved ones home. Those hostages may be hidden in cramped tunnels under the ruins of Gaza, but we will not forget them, or Hamas’s despicable actions, and we will continue to demand their unconditional release. This offensive puts them in grave danger, but still Netanyahu persists. Indeed, Minister Katz has gone further, proposing to drive Gaza’s entire population into Rafah, imprisoning Palestinians, unless they are persuaded to emigrate. This is a cruel vision that must never come to pass, and I condemn it unequivocally. Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international humanitarian law. Many Israelis themselves are appalled. As the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, “it marches us into the abyss”. He is right. Today I join a statement with 31 Foreign Ministers as signatories. It had a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now. There is no military solution. Negotiations will secure the hostages. Further bloodshed serves no purpose. Hamas and Israel must both commit to a ceasefire now, and the next ceasefire must be the last ceasefire. I thank the United States, Qatar and Egypt for their tireless efforts. I am sure that all Members share my intense frustration that the ceasefire has not happened. Until there is a breakthrough, we must keep doing all we can to relieve the suffering. UK aid has saved lives, reaching hundreds of thousands with food, water, hygiene and sanitation, and essential healthcare. Under the most appalling circumstances, our aid is saving lives today. That includes the almost £9 million the UK has provided to UK-Med since we entered office, reaching half a million patients inside Gaza and 24,000 in the past fortnight alone, including three-year old Razan—UK-funded medics removed a bullet from her neck after nearly three hours of surgery. These doctors and nurses working in the most extreme conditions are true heroes. They deserve the thanks and admiration of the entire House. We are also working multilaterally. The 149 trucks from the World Food Programme and UNICEF entering Gaza in recent days included food supplies funded by the UK. Thousands more trucks laden with aid paid for by British taxpayers can enter the moment that the Israeli Government let them in. Today I am announcing an extra £40 million for humanitarian assistance in Gaza this year, including £7.5 million for UK-Med to sustain its vital operations in Gaza and save more lives. Accompanying the horrors in Gaza is an accelerating campaign to prevent a future Palestinian state in the west bank. It is embraced by Netanyahu, encouraged by his Ministers and driven by an extremist ideology that wants to suffocate the two-state solution, which is the only route to a lasting peace and security. We see it in the unprecedented pace of settlement expansion and in the shocking levels of settler violence—and even settler terrorism, for that is what the most egregious ideological attacks are. The deliberate attempts to squeeze the Palestinian Authority, unjustly denying them access to their own funds, harms Israel’s long-term interests in the process. Now the Israeli Government are reintroducing plans to construct new units in the E1 area of occupied East Jerusalem. If built, that settlement would separate the west bank’s north from its south, and Palestinians in the west bank from East Jerusalem. These plans are wholly unacceptable, they are illegal, and they must not happen. We are striving to keep open the prospects of a two-state solution. UK assistance has been preserving the Palestinian Authority, contributing to essential Palestinian workers’ salaries and supporting them to progress critical reforms. Today I can confirm that we are enhancing our support, providing £7 million to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian governance, implementing the agreement signed by me and Prime Minister Mustafa earlier this year, and delivering the reform plans that President Abbas has set out. I can also confirm that we are providing £20 million to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s many services for Palestinian refugees. Alongside that support, we are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable peaceful pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area. Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, and nor must it be allowed to use it as a launchpad for terrorism. Israeli Ministers should support the Palestinian Authority, not actively undermine their economy, as Ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich are doing. The UK is co-leading with Egypt the humanitarian and reconstruction track for the forthcoming two-state solution conference, and we are pushing to agree plans for a credible next phase in Gaza, with a responsible, reformed PA at their core, so that we can turn any temporary ceasefire into a lasting peace. In our year in office, this Labour Government have acted to address this horrendous conflict. We restored funding to UNRWA after the Tories froze it. We suspended arms export licences, when the Tories had declined to act. We have provided nearly a quarter of a billion in humanitarian assistance this year and next, getting medical treatment and food to hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza. We have stood with the hostage families at every stage. We have worked with Jordan to fly medicines into Gaza, with Egypt to treat medically evacuated civilians, and with Kuwait and UNICEF to help children in Gaza. We have delivered three sanctions packages on violent settlers, suspended trade negotiations with the Israeli Government, and sanctioned far-right Israeli Ministers for incitement. We have defended the independence of the international courts. We have signed a landmark agreement with the Palestinian Authority and hosted the Palestinian Prime Minister in London, pushing for the reform they need. We called for, worked for and voted for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the hostages at every possible opportunity, and we will keep doing so until this war is over, Hamas release the hostages and we finally have a pathway to a two-state solution. I commend this statement to the House.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I cannot agree with what the right hon. Gentleman has said, save for his remarks that the hostages must be released.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question; he is right to mention the hostages. I meet regularly with hostage families and did a few weeks ago in my office. He is absolutely right that the overwhelming majority of the Israeli people—83%—want a ceasefire so that the hostages can get out, and they want it to be a sustained and enduring ceasefire, which is not currently the position of Benjamin Netanyahu.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I say to the right hon. Gentleman that we have suspended sales of arms that could be used in Gaza. He should look closely at our export licensing regime, because much of it is not about arms. It is about, for example, equipment that we send to support non-governmental organisations and others in the area. Of course, I am happy to look, with the Home Secretary, at what more we can do for children who are suffering.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is right: there can be no justification for shooting people as they are queuing for food—none whatsoever. I reassure him that we continue to work with the UN system and with close partners like Jordan to do all we can to alleviate the suffering.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I have to tell him that it demeans his argument when he personalises it in the way that he does. It is unbecoming, and not something the House expects, particularly of its more senior Members.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I set out in my statement the action that this Government have taken, and I stand by it. I regret that we have not brought about a ceasefire. I have also set out that we are attempting to get in more aid and how we are supporting the Palestinian people, including the Palestinian Authority, and I stand by that.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his long-standing campaigning on these issues. Of course I am hearing the strength of feeling in the House—how could I not?—and of course the Israeli Government can see the strength of feeling in the House. He knows the list of actions that the UK has taken. He knows the work we are doing with close allies. He knows, too, that we have not brought this war to an end, and he will be familiar with the work we are doing with countries such as Qatar, Egypt and the United States to bring about a ceasefire.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  The last Government suggested back in 2014 that there would be consequences if the Israeli Government move forward with E1, so it is absolutely the case that there would be consequences if they made such a move, not just from the UK but from all international partners.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  In my experience, my hon. Friend chooses her words carefully, and the whole House will have heard what she has said this afternoon. I reassure her that, in my discussions with the Jordanians, the Saudi Arabians, the Qataris, the Emiratis and the Egyptians, and indeed with Prime Minister Mustafa, we of course discuss the recognition issue, as we have been doing with our French colleagues.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I remind my hon. Friend of the action that this Government have taken and how we have tried to lead in the international community on this issue. I also join her in condemning what we have seen in relation to civilians. Page 28 of “Conflict, Hunger and International Humanitarian Law: A Practitioner’s Legal Handbook” makes it clear that: “Parties to armed conflict must take constant care in the conduct of military operations to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects.” Clearly, that is not happening.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I associate myself with much that the hon. Gentleman said. It is a source of great regret to me that we have not brought this most horrendous of wars and conflicts to an end. My right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, referred to the Israeli Government’s response to the statement signed by 31 countries, which I had not heard because I have been sat in this Chamber. That ignoring of the international community is tarnishing greatly the reputation of Israel. I listed in my statement the action that this Government have taken in the last year, since coming into office. The hon. Gentleman knows that this Government have led much of the multilateral effort, and that sits behind both the leaders’ statement a few weeks ago and the Foreign Secretaries’ statement today. We will continue to press. We continue, of course, to look at what further we may need to do, as he would expect. I wish I could say that if we were to recognise tomorrow, it would bring this war to an end, but I am afraid I am not sure that is the case. What is required now is painstaking diplomacy to get to a ceasefire, and my assessment is that we will not see that ceasefire until the Knesset rises.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful to the hon. Lady for the vision that she paints, and I associate myself with the remarks she makes in relation to children, particularly about starvation and the situation that they face. Of course we are working closely with the UN system. I spoke to Tom Fletcher at the beginning of last week to get the latest on the aid situation, and we will continue to work with him.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  Yes, I will.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  My right hon. Friend is right to call into question so quickly the Israeli Government’s rejection of the advice of their friends and 31 countries, which have come together to express their horror at people losing their lives when simply reaching out to get aid and humanitarian care. She referred to the debate about recognition. We will be working with our French colleagues, who are focusing the upcoming conference on how we get to two states; as she would expect, the UK will play its part. On the broader issues, I hope and pray that we get a ceasefire, and of course that will lead to further activity as we head towards the UN General Assembly.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that Hamas cannot continue to govern in Gaza, and I suspect that everyone in this Chamber agrees with that. I do believe that there are prospects beyond that. Indeed, the IRA laid down its arms, and that is a template for how to demilitarise and how leaders in this circumstance can perhaps exit Gaza. However, the continued undermining of the Palestinian Authority by the Israeli Government, including the starvation of funds, is an attempt not to get to a two-state solution which all of us in this House want to see.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Gentleman would struggle to point to any Government of a major G7 or European state that have done as much as we have in office. We led the sanctioning of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir specifically because of their language and behaviours in relation to the west bank. We have said that we keep sanctions under review, as he would expect.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  The UK is clear that we expect Israel to adhere to its commitment that its presence in the area of separation in the south is both limited and temporary. I did press the Israeli Foreign Minister on Israel’s activity, which I worry destabilises the situation further.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I hope that the Israeli Government are watching and note what senior parliamentarians on both sides of this House are saying. The right hon. Gentleman will know that 83% of the population now want a ceasefire, and he will have seen the remarks of former Prime Ministers and of all the Opposition in Israel, who condemned the most recent proposals suggested by Minister Katz.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I say politely to my hon. Friend that when last year some countries took a step to recognition, it did not change things on the ground. She asks with passion, what is going on? My focus is what is going on and trying to alleviate the suffering. While I recognise the debate on recognition, and we must move to recognition at the appropriate point, I say to her politely that, in terms of this conflict, I do not believe in all honesty that recognition would change the situation on the ground.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for her strength of feeling and for campaigning on and championing this issue in her constituency, but I remind her that we are supporting many groups that are on the ground in the west bank documenting expansion and violence. That work assists the United Nations and the global community.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I understand the fury that the right hon. Gentleman feels, but I have to tell him—

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  Again, I understand my hon. Friend’s strength of feeling. She knows that there will be a two-state conference on 28 July, and of course we will participate. But she will have also detected that at that conference our French and Saudi Arabian colleagues are talking not about recognition but about how we get to two states and get an enduring ceasefire. It may be that as we head to September and the United Nations General Assembly the issue of recognition is raised once more.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  We are concerned about the statements made and the language used. We do believe that they are inflammatory and that, were that to take place, that would breach Israel’s obligations. We are looking closely at Israel’s behaviour.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I stand by all the decisions we have made as a Government, which are numerous; I listed them in my statement. On the full arms embargo, I am content that we are not sending arms that could be used in Gaza. I ask the hon. Lady to look closely at the export licensing regime, because there are many things that are sent to Israel, and they are for use by NGOs in Israel sometimes so that they themselves are not injured in theatres of conflict.