Hamish Falconer MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right, as was my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen), to raise the fate of pregnant women in Gaza, and indeed of those who have recently given birth. I am happy to meet her to discuss these issues in greater detail.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has extensive experience in defence and I am grateful to him for his question. During the UK-Morocco strategic dialogue in June, both sides agreed to deepen our defence industrial co-operation. I am glad that two memorandums of understanding between the UK and Morocco have since been signed thanks to the work of the Foreign Secretary.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Foreign Office seeks in its consular assistance to always provide timely support to British nationals overseas. I will investigate the case and report back to the hon. Lady.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her work on these matters. We have seen those reports; the Foreign Secretary referred to them in the House yesterday afternoon. As I said earlier, the threshold that the Government must test against is the one we outlined in September, which is about the real risk. We have found that there is a real risk, and our actions have flowed from that determination.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her sustained engagement in these issues. As the Foreign Secretary has said, we talk regularly to hostage families in Israel and to participants in Israeli politics right across the spectrum, and we will continue to do so. We make our disagreements with the Israeli Government clear, both in private and in public, and we will continue to do that, too.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has long advocated these questions. I pay tribute to the work of Save the Children and other UK non-governmental organisations that have continued to do dangerous and lifesaving work in Gaza. I met many of them over the recess. There are a number of restrictions in place in relation not simply to the passage of aid into Gaza, which we have discussed in this House a number of times, but to the function of the NGOs themselves. We keep a very close interest in this and have raised it with the Israeli Government.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, as there has been a number of different reports on this, let me clarify that we believe that it is the Houthi Prime Minister, rather than the Yemeni Prime Minister, who has recently been struck. The Houthis, as the House knows, are a threat not just to the people of Yemen and to the region, but to international shipping. I have engaged closely with the Yemeni Government, including with both the previous Yemeni Prime Minister and the current Yemeni Prime Minister, who I am happy to report is still alive.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I set out the detail of the sanctions to which my hon. Friend refers, and the Foreign Secretary has announced a review of some of the elements of our bilateral co-operation with Israel, including a number of steps in relation to free trade agreements and so on.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend asks a vital question, which I raised directly with the Syrian Minister of Justice and the Syrian Foreign Minister last week. The violence—in coastal regions, targeting Alawites, and in Suwayda in the south, targeting Druze and others—was deeply concerning. The Syrians have conducted an investigation relatively independently in relation to the violence at the coast. I called on them, as the Foreign Secretary has done before, to do everything they can to ensure that minorities in the new Syria feel safe and protected by the Syrian Government.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  Yesterday, the Foreign Secretary set out the long-standing position of Ministers on such determinations. Under the previous Government, the threshold that this House set Governments was whether there was a real risk. We have applied ourselves to that test, and we have found that there is a real risk. Our actions from September onwards have flowed from that determination.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady raises vital questions. The IPC—integrated food security phase classification—report over the recess was truly horrifying: 500,000 people in Gaza are facing famine. We continue to take the actions that we discussed in the House yesterday afternoon, in relation to recognition and the suspension of arms that could be used in Gaza.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has a long track record of raising such issues, and she is absolutely right to highlight the fate of pregnant women and those who have recently given birth in Gaza. I am pleased to tell the House that we are still able to get some supplies relevant to those challenges into Gaza, but clearly in a famine of this nature, pregnant women and recently born children suffer the worst. We have allocated a further £3 million via the UNFPA—the UN Population Fund—to try to provide the services needed. We will continue to do all we can with the Israeli Government to ensure that they provide the access required.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  In response to the deepening crisis, the Foreign Secretary yesterday announced a further £15 million of aid and medical care for Gaza and the region, taking our total funding to £75 million this year. We are working to get children with the most acute needs out of Gaza and into the UK for specialist NHS treatment. The Foreign Secretary and I continue to urge the Israeli authorities to address the famine and the catastrophic humanitarian situation immediately.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  I agree very much with my hon. Friend. The US of course has a key role to play in securing a lasting peace in the region. As the Foreign Secretary said yesterday, he has raised the issues directly with his American counterparts, as have the rest of the ministerial team. I confirm the Government’s full support for the US, Qatar and Egypt in their vital work to secure a sustainable ceasefire.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  I have been clear already about our views on the vital urgency of lifting aid restrictions. I have gone myself to the border to see our aid in al-Arish. I have spoken to our partners. UK-Med, for example, has been chasing consignments since March. We make these points with force to the Israeli Government, and we have already taken far-reaching sanction action, as discussed by the Foreign Secretary yesterday afternoon.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend and his constituent, Becky. Over the recess, I met doctors who have served in Gaza. Hearing their first-hand accounts of the injuries that children are suffering there was truly horrifying. We continue to press the Israeli Government. They must act urgently to lift restrictions, open up aid flows and enable the UN and international non-governmental organisations to carry out their lifesaving work without obstruction. The Foreign Secretary delivered that message to Foreign Minister Sa’ar just last week, and over the past month we have delivered strong, co-ordinated messages with partners through joint statements.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is absolutely right. The Foreign Secretary set out our very clear views yesterday afternoon. The GHF is not working and has led to thousands upon thousands of injuries and many, many deaths at its sites. I have heard of the considerable looting that is associated with the lack of UN machinery—machinery that was functioning effectively. I am glad to tell the House that there does appear to be more aid getting into Gaza in total, and the cost of flour has slightly reduced, but there is still considerable looting. The aid operation is not working as it should. The UK supports the UN and its agencies. The GHF is not working.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I would be— [Interruption.] There is an amusing degree of lightness from the Opposition Benches about security matters. I would be delighted to discuss this matter further. The question at issue in the Jonathan Hall report is the state threats proscription-like tool. I accept that the name is rather clunky, but it is focused on the fact that a state, in this case, has proved a persistent threat in the UK, using methods unlike those usually employed by a state. I will not say very much more about that, but Jonathan Hall has identified a gap and it is that gap that we are seeking to fill. I will be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the issue further.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I very much agree with my hon. Friend, on both the importance of diplomacy and the importance of BBC Persian, through which the UK makes an important contribution for Farsi speakers across the world. I have met many BBC Persian service journalists and they provide a vital service.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  We have long had concerns over Iran’s malign activity. Iran’s continued support to aligned groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas, undermines regional stability. It supports Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine through the provision of unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles, and it poses a threat to UK nationals, Iranian dissidents and Jewish people in the United Kingdom. This Government will hold Iran accountable for its hostile activities. The Home Secretary announced on 19 May that Jonathan Hall’s review delivered recommendations to tackle state threats. We are committed to taking them forward, including through the creation of a new state threats proscription-like tool. In April, we sanctioned the Iranian-backed, Swedish-based Foxtrot criminal network for its role in attacks against targets across Europe. In September, in response to Iran’s transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia, we ended Iran’s air services agreement and stopped Iran Air flying directly into the UK. We have placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, enhancing transparency regarding foreign influence in the UK. We have so far designated 31 individuals in relation to malign Iranian activity. The UK now has more than 450 sanctions against Iranian-linked individuals and entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend asks vital questions. We do want serious negotiation with the Iranian Government about nuclear weapons and, indeed, many other things. The Foreign Secretary sought to play a full role in providing an opportunity for talks rather than conflict, but those talks cannot be spun out indefinitely. The deadline for snapback, which was referenced by the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), is fast approaching, so we are under considerable time pressure. That does not mean we do not want talks to happen, but they must happen at pace and with real seriousness.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  The Foreign Office—the whole ministerial team and our diplomats—are focused on the concrete steps that would be required. The hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) asked an important question about the IAEA and there was an important question about snapback. There are a range of serious and impactful diplomatic measures that can be used to try to make diplomatic progress to guarantee that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon. I recognise that there is a long history of nuclear diplomacy with Iran that has not been a success; that is why I said in one of my previous answers that the timeframe is not unlimited. We will take steps, including snapback, if we do not make progress on diplomacy.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I am not, for reasons obvious, going to provide a running commentary on the assessments of UK intelligence agencies.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  The UK has been able to provide a very limited amount by way of consular support in Iran for some years, for exactly the reasons that my hon. Friend mentioned—it is frustrated by the Iranian Government—and our warnings and travel advice are clear. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for providing me with an opportunity to confirm to the House that we have now reopened our embassy in Tehran after a temporary closure, and a chargé is in place. We will continue to play our full role to ensure the safety of British nationals in Iran and, indeed, to contribute to the diplomatic developments we have discussed.

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  I do not want anyone in the House to be under any illusions about the seriousness with which we take the IRGC’s activities. That is why we commissioned the Jonathan Hall review. That is why it is on the enhanced tier of FIRS—the foreign influence registration scheme. That is why it is fully sanctioned. That is why we have continued to impose sanctions in response to Iranian aggression. I know well the threat that Iran poses not just to British nationals but to journalists as well, as my hon. Friend eloquently points out. I have met many of those journalists. I am appalled that some of those threats are being made here in the UK. I will not comment too much on law enforcement and intelligence activity, but I have been clear with the Iranian ambassador that the full force of the law and all our capabilities will be focused on those who seek to harm people here.