Hamish Falconer MP: speeches

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Speeches

7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman asks important questions. The UK’s goal is de-escalation to try to ensure that we return to regional stability. The other issues between India and Pakistan—which have long been discussed in this House—are important questions to which we can return, but today the focus must be on de-escalation.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I can confirm to my hon. Friend that the dialogue will continue. Of course, the Prime Minister was in touch with Prime Minister Modi just yesterday, and I was with the Pakistani Finance Minister and, indeed, the Pakistani high commissioner in London just an hour or two ago.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I can assure the hon. Member that the UK remains committed in all our interactions to emphasising the pre-eminent importance of international humanitarian law and the rules-based international order.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The hon. Member is right to finish his remarks focusing on the importance of direct dialogue, which I of course support. I will not seek to adjudicate from this Dispatch Box on the competing claims about the facts.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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As I said in the previous answer, there is clearly a considerable amount of debate about the facts of what has happened just in the last few hours. I do not wish to focus, and it would indeed be inappropriate for the UK to speculate, on those exact facts. We need to focus from this House on de-escalating the risks to regional stability that we see today.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I can confirm that it will be in that spirit that we conduct our diplomatic efforts. Many hon. Members have alluded to their own family connections with India or Pakistan. As I said earlier, I lived in Pakistan during my first lengthy overseas posting. I know that many hon. Members from across the House feel our friendship with both India and Pakistan very deeply, and it is in that spirit that we will conduct our work.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for his acknowledgment of the importance of de-escalation. I confirm that we will prioritise regional stability, the reasonable interests of both countries and, indeed, the UK’s interest in the region, which includes stability between two great friends of this country.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for her constituents. We have been updating the travel advice and I can confirm that my Department has taken steps to be able to respond as fully as possible to the concerns of our collective constituents who are in the region. Foreign Office travel advice will be the first and best place for constituents across the country to be looking.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for conveying the concerns of her constituents so effectively. Regional stability is in the interests of India and Pakistan, and indeed the UK, and it will be to those ends that our diplomacy will be focused. As she acknowledges, my focus this afternoon is on de-escalation, but of course we will engage with both Governments on the full range of the interests engaged.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I recognise my hon. Friend’s long advocacy on these questions. Today we are calling for de-escalation, and our position on Kashmir remains unchanged. I am sure I will return to this House to discuss the longer-term issues between India and Pakistan in the fullness of time.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The agenda of the UN Security Council is agreed in New York, and when we are in a position to update the House on what that agenda looks like, we will of course do so.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for the sensitive and personal tone that he brings to his remarks. I, too, have seen the Commonwealth war graves in Pakistan and India, which are a tribute to the service of many from the British Indian forces that fought in world war two. I can assure him and his constituents that we will do everything we can to play our full diplomatic role.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I agree with my hon. Friend that de-escalation is vital, and it is to that end that our efforts are dedicated.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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Our focus from the Dispatch Box is on de-escalation and regional stability. My hon. Friend, who has a long-standing commitment to these issues, is right to focus on the damage that the scourge of terrorism has caused Pakistanis, as well as others, and that has been the subject of many discussions between me and my Pakistani equivalent. Pakistan herself would most benefit from the eradication of the scourge of terrorism within her borders.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The Indus river system is of enormous importance to both India and Pakistan, and it will be vital that all actors and international partners work towards its long-term sustainability.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The situation remains incredibly delicate and fast-moving, and we have seen rival accounts through the course of the morning about events. We will of course track these events very carefully. I responded to the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Sir Andrew Mitchell) on the question of the terrorist groups in Pakistan, which pose a threat to Pakistan as well as others. We will of course continue to monitor events very closely. There is still much that is disputed, but it is absolutely obvious that for regional stability to be restored, we need to have direct, urgent contact between India and Pakistan and calm heads prevailing.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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As I am sure will be clear to all Members, I am focused on de-escalation and regional stability. The UK continues to stand by the importance of international humanitarian law and a rules-based international order. International humanitarian law governs the actions of all states towards necessity and proportionality, and we expect all of our friends, and indeed every nation state, to abide by them.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I recognise the concerns that will be felt in my hon. Friend’s constituency, as they are felt in Lincoln and elsewhere. I can assure him and the whole House that we will use our full diplomatic weight to try to ensure de-escalation in the region.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to focus on de-escalation. That is my focus this afternoon from the Dispatch Box. Our position on Kashmir remains unchanged, but the focus for now must be on ensuring that there are no further threats to regional stability.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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Our priority is to ensure direct contact between India and Pakistan and to ensure that those tensions are directly de-escalated. We are of course very proud that we are Commonwealth members with both India and Pakistan, and that Commonwealth membership reflects a deep and unique history between the UK and India and the UK and Pakistan. We welcome the free trade agreement that was announced yesterday, and of course these are close, deep friendships between both the countries involved. We will, in all our efforts, seek to restore regional stability and we will do that with both our friends.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his tone and for his question. I can confirm that the Foreign Secretary and other members of the Government are in direct touch with other permanent members of the Security Council, including the United States.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right, of course. Civilians must be protected. For British nationals concerned by developments, I would encourage them to refer to our travel advice, as I said earlier. This is obviously a fast-moving situation and we will not always be in a position to update our latest advice from this Dispatch Box, so constituents should please look there first and foremost for advice from the British Government about how to ensure their safety. My hon. Friend refers to some of the wider issues that we discussed last week, including the Indus water treaty, which I understand is in abeyance rather than being repealed. Some of these longer-term issues will of course need to be discussed, but the first priority must be de-escalation.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for the concern he shows for his constituents in Watford. As I have said, we are in regular touch with all those states that have an interest and with the two parties themselves, and we will continue to be so.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his measured and reasonable question. I will take away the issue he raises. I have been in regular contact with the Minister for Faith, Communities and Resettlement in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. We are discussing these issues closely, recognising the sensitivity in constituencies like the hon. Gentleman’s and many others that have been mentioned.
7 May 2025 · India-Pakistan: Escalation · Hansard source
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The right hon. Lady asks important questions. Let me take this opportunity to reiterate our condemnation of terrorism in all its forms. Our thoughts are still with those affected by the despicable acts of 22 April, their loved ones and the people of India. The Prime Minister spoke with Prime Minister Modi on 24 April and the Foreign Secretary spoke with his counterpart on 27 April. We are all, as the right hon. Lady would expect, in regular contact with our counterparts. As she may know, the Foreign Secretary is travelling and I am not privy to his very latest contacts, but I know that they are ongoing. The right hon. Lady asks important questions about community relations in this country. I am working closely with my Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government counterparts, who are talking to affected communities across the country and recognising the sensitivities that she points to. I can confirm that I have had extended discussions with my Pakistani counterparts about the terrorist threats within Pakistan and the efforts that need to be made to address that. That is a terrorist threat that affects Pakistan herself, which, even in recent months, has suffered significant terrorist attacks.

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