David Lammy MP: speeches 2025

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Speeches

23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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They did not seek that advice.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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We have UK nationals in the region. We have UK bases in the region, and force protection is at its highest level. We have several thousand troops in the region. Of course their welfare is our priority. Of course we have moved assets in a precautionary way into the area, and of course we will work alongside our allies to protect them and to protect our people. I can give the hon. Member that assurance wholeheartedly.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I was in the House during the period in which Chilcot was doing his work, and I reassure my hon. Friend that our Government—and, I hope, all future UK Governments—have learned from its findings.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that of course we stand with our allies in the United States and Israel in facing down the repeated threats from Iran. The threat to Israel is existential, and the Iranians are destabilising the neighbourhood. Of course we will stand up to them.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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It was important for the so-called E3—the United Kingdom, alongside Germany and France—working with the EU’s high representative, to make clear our concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the Iranian Foreign Minister and to urge him to come back to diplomacy. All of us were on the phone to him again after the action. Of course there is an important role for Europe, particularly as the custodians of the JCPOA, and because we have a decision to make about whether we will in fact snap back and impose a heavy set of sanctions on Iran if it fails to comply.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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It is important that we de-escalate at this time and that diplomacy prevails, and of course it is important that we work with our allies for every contingency. I am not in the business of talking up fears of an oil price shock; I am working to reassure the British people that we are doing all we can to see that that eventuality does not come to pass.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend, but he will forgive me. I am not going to enter into a history lesson from the Dispatch Box, except to remind him that on Sunday I achieved 25 years as an elected parliamentarian. During the course of that period, there have, of course, been debates about regime change. I also remind him that the US has been clear that its intention is to target the nuclear threat. We should keep that in mind.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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That is the central question. What I have found is inflexibility, as well as a failure to face the seriousness with which the international community are looking at this question and to accept both that we have moved on from the joint comprehensive plan of action, which the Iranians pulled out of back in 2019, and that the focus now is on zero enrichment. Maybe they can have a civil nuclear capability, but it would have to be heavily monitored and would need some sort of international regime in locus with it. They have to face that seriousness now at this point.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her question. The loss of life over the past few days—hundreds of people who lost their lives queuing for food—is appalling and should offend us all. Of course, when I spoke to Israel’s Foreign Minister yesterday, I reminded him once again of my deep concerns over the new system that Israel has put in place to deliver aid and of our belief that that system cannot and will not work, and that we need to return to a much better provision.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I remind my hon. Friend that we have the strongest of bilateral defence relationships with Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon at this time, and they can rely on us.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am afraid I am not able to give an assessment of the effectiveness of that action at this stage, and neither is the United States. The hon. Lady may think that that is a binary question, but I do not believe it is. What the UK is engaged in is diplomacy, and we are working, of course, with our closest ally, the United States.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman may just have got a soundbite, but I am afraid that I am not going to take any lectures from him on the nuclear question. He has a very sorry record on that serious matter. We have been very clear that diplomacy is the way and that de-escalation is our position. That is what a Government pursue if they are serious about foreign policy, and I would recommend our approach to him.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. The proscription question is always one for the Home Secretary. In relation to the decision that she has made today, it is important to stress that the process has involved all the relevant agencies and their assessment of the activities. I have to say that the attacking of RAF bases is disgraceful and totally unacceptable, and the force of the law must bear down on that. The Home Secretary keeps proscription under review, and I know that the hon. Gentleman has raised a long-standing issue.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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From my discussions with the United States and with Secretary of State Rubio, that is not their intention; the right hon. Gentleman will have seen that from the thrust of the press conference held in the United States yesterday. He will also know that they are assessing now what has happened and they are hoping that it has been a targeted response and a single response. That is the thrust of what we are being told by the United States at this time.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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It would be quite wrong for me to go into eventualities and operational matters at this Dispatch Box at this time, but the hon. Gentleman should be reassured that all contingency arrangements are in place to keep our people safe and to work with our allies to keep the region safe.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I simply say to the right hon. Gentleman, with all respect, that there is a convention in our country about the very important role that Attorneys General play in our Government. They are able to give the Government advice when asked for it; that happens under all Governments. I do not really recognise the caricature that I have heard or some of the reports. I want to make it crystal clear that we were not involved in this action and therefore some of what is being said is wholly beyond the pale.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I recognise that the right hon. Gentleman has been campaigning on these issues over many years, and has taken strong positions on nuclear proliferation. I do not want to go back to the days of Mordechai Vanunu, but I remind the right hon. Gentleman that Israel is not threatening its neighbours with nuclear weapons—it is Iran that we must stop at this time.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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It would be wrong for me to go into detail about that, but of course it has come to my attention. I also put on record my grave concerns about the reports that Iran’s Parliament is preparing to withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which would further isolate Iran.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend allows me to put on record what a privilege it has been to serve and work as Foreign Secretary alongside a Prime Minister of such tremendous principle and legal learning, who entirely understands his obligations and what good government looks like, and is absolutely steadfast in his belief in the international rules-based order.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I say gently to the hon. Lady that one should always be wary of moral equivalence. Russia invaded a sovereign country and, for the last years, has been firing rockets into that country, aided by Iran. We will continue to stand up to Putin’s abysmal aggression, and of course he should be held to account.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I can. Of course the regime should recognise the right of Israel to exist, and it should work with the United States and the E3, particularly, to ensure that it is putting whatever has been developed beyond use.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning Mahsa Amini—a young woman who was imprisoned in Iran because of her appearance and then killed in police custody. Some 20,000 people, many of them protesters, were thrown into jail as a result, and 500 lost their lives—effectively murdered. That is the regime we are talking about, and my hon. Friend is quite right to remind the House of that. On diplomacy, I refer her to the statements I have previously made about our position on it.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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We were not involved. Over the weekend, I spoke to my Cypriot and Lebanese counterparts, and in the days before that, I spoke to all counterparts in the Gulf. Of course we are working to de-escalate at this time.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I refer the hon. Gentleman to paragraph 2.13 of the ministerial code.
23 Jun 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I recall that he also recognises the problems of that nuclear threat and nuclear proliferation. An assessment has not yet been made of the effectiveness of that military action, but he will have heard my remarks in relation to diplomacy. That is the way now, and it will be the way that we get beyond this current crisis.

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