Jeremy Corbyn MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 30 Jul 2024 · Lebanon · Hansard source

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  I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement. Obviously yet more deaths is a tragedy—every mother and every father grieves for lost children, as do all relatives—but there is an issue here: unless the Government and Israel and others accept the International Court of Justice’s opinions and judgments about the illegal nature of the occupation of the west bank and Gaza, and of course the illegal nature of the occupation of the Golan heights, we are in danger of the conflict getting much worse. The UN Secretary-General has called for restraint. Will the British Government join him in doing so? Will they also join him in trying to convene some sort of regional peace initiative in order to prevent this whole thing from escalating completely out of control? Finally, do the Government reject the Israeli occupation of the Golan heights?

• 25 Jul 2024 · Civil Service: National Pay Bargaining Units · Hansard source

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  7. Whether he plans to take steps to consolidate the number of national pay bargaining units in the civil service.

• 25 Jul 2024 · Civil Service: National Pay Bargaining Units · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for the reply he has just given. Will he assure the House that he is going to make progress towards a return to full sectoral bargaining? He must be aware that many thousands of civil servants are not covered by a pay review body or any other bargaining mechanism. Will he take steps to ensure that all civil servants are bought within the purview of a pay review body bargaining unit as part of a return to sectoral bargaining?

• 25 Jul 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Could I congratulate the Leader of the House on her new position? Could she ensure that a statement is brought forward on the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice decisions relating to Israel and Gaza, and on whether the UK Government will withdraw their objections to any rulings they have made so that they can go ahead and be part of international law? The Prime Minister has said that the current UK Government are fully signed up to all aspects of international law and, of course, the European convention on human rights.

• 22 Jul 2024 · Border Security and Asylum · Hansard source

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  I thank the Home Secretary for her statement. The tragedy of desperate people dying in the channel is compounded by desperate people dying in the Mediterranean and the Aegean as human beings fleeing all kinds of horrible situation seek a place of safety. Is she co-operating with other European countries on a safe route for asylum seekers? Is she prepared to look in a much more humane way at the desperate situation facing people fleeing human rights abuses and wars around the world?

• 22 Jul 2024 · NATO and European Political Community Meetings · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Prime Minister on the office that he has achieved, and thank him for his statement. I am pleased with the decision to remain part of the European convention on human rights. In all his meetings with both the EU and NATO, was the issue of global war considered—not just the wars in Ukraine and Palestine, but those in Sudan, Congo and Yemen—and the possibility of involving the UN much more in looking towards a more peaceful future, rather than continued greater expenditure on arms? I am pleased that the Prime Minister has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, but surely if we are to follow international law we need to go a bit further and call for the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces both from Gaza and the west bank, and an end to our complicity by supplying arms to Israel.

• 18 Jul 2024 · Foreign Affairs and Defence · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member on a powerful speech. I agree with her call for an immediate ceasefire. Does she believe that we should also halt arms supplies to Israel, which are being used to bomb Gaza and make us and the United States complicit in the killing of so many people in Gaza?

• 18 Jul 2024 · Foreign Affairs and Defence · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Secretary of State on the appointment he has received; I know it is a position he has sought, and I wish him well. The conflict that is going on and the bombing in Gaza have already resulted in 40,000 deaths. Are the Government serious in pushing Israel to take part in an immediate ceasefire? Are they also prepared to suspend or stop all arms sales to Israel in order to save further lives? The Secretary of State also made a point in his speech about the need to adhere to international law. There are international court judgments at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; are the Government going to support those judgments and ensure that they are carried out, whatever the political consequences? They require action to be taken internationally to bring a halt to this appalling conflict. Forty thousand are already dead, and the occupation continues. Surely there must be a way forward that stops the loss of life.

• 17 Jul 2024 · Debate on the Address · Hansard source

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  It is a great pleasure to be able to take part in this debate. I congratulate the new Members on their maiden speeches. I put on record my deep thanks to all the people of the Islington North constituency for voting for me in the election to be an independent MP. Fighting as an independent was an interesting experience after fighting 10 elections as a Labour candidate. It is a very different experience. You have to have a deep and very honest conversation with everybody on every doorstep as to why you are doing it. I am grateful to the people for their response and for their confidence in me to be their Member of Parliament. I put on record my thanks to them. This election showed an enormous parliamentary majority for the Labour party. I congratulate all Labour MPs who have been elected and congratulate the Government on taking office, but I think people should be a little bit careful. The total vote for Labour was lower in this election than it was in the last two general elections. A number of independents like me were elected, and there was an increase in Green MPs, an increase in Plaid Cymru MPs and an increase in Sinn Féin MPs from Northern Ireland. There are levels of discontent in our society that were reflected in the election result. We ought to reflect on that. People in this election were totally fed up with falling living standards, increasing levels of poverty, increasing levels of homelessness, and higher levels of mental health stress and deep unease among many people in all our communities. As the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) said earlier, if the Government do not deliver on improving living standards for the very poorest in our society and deliver on improving the public services that everybody relies on, then the alternative is a turn towards the far right in politics, who will simply blame migrants, refugees or any handy minority for the problems that people face. We need something concrete that sets out a strong message about how we will improve living standards and make for a fairer society. A good start would be ending the two-child benefit cap immediately. It would cost £1.3 billion, take 250,000 children out of poverty instantly, and be a signal that we are serious. The idea of a commission to look at poverty is no doubt very welcome. I am sure Sir Humphrey thought that one up very fast: “Quick, folks, there is a problem. A lot of MPs are complaining about the two-child cap. Let us set up a commission and just delay this.” But why not do it now? Why not say, quite simply, “We are going to end the cap”? It is cruel and nasty to suggest that the third, fourth or fifth child in a family is less valuable than the first two. I hope the Government will listen to that, and I hope that if there is a vote next week, a substantial number will vote in exactly the same way as Members voted in 1997 when the incoming Government decided to cut the lone parent benefit, and were forever marked by that decision. Why not make this decision now? My constituency, like many others, suffers from serious housing problems. Levels of homelessness are increasing all the time, with not just rough sleeping but overcrowding, and the private rented sector is completely unaffordable. I was interested by the section of the King’s Speech about regulation of the sector. Everything in that was fine, and I agreed with it all, but there was something missing: there was no reference to controlling rent levels. That is the fundamental problem. Yes, we want security of tenure and yes, we want decent conditions, but if the private rented sector is not regulated, inner-city communities such as mine will simply suffer further migration as people are priced out of the area. We need a comprehensive housing strategy that regulates the private rented sector, brings the housing associations under control—because, in my experience, they are not democratic in any way—and, above all, ensures that resources are available for the building of council housing, which is the most secure, permanent form of housing that we can provide. That would help to reduce the level of housing stress: there are currently a million people on the social housing register. I want to make two more points in the short time that is available. The Thatcher Government from 1979 onwards were beyond obsessed with the privatisation of public services. Whenever they were opposed on that—I was in the Chamber throughout that time, and I am happy to say that I voted against every single one of the privatisations—they said, “It is fine: regulation will take care of it.” Well, we have had more than 30 years of regulation of the water industry, and during that time £72 billion has been taken out of water companies in either profits or dividends rather than being spent on investment in infrastructure. We now have record high bills, a demand for even higher bills from the water companies, and unprecedented levels of sewage disposal in our rivers and also in the sea, which is contrary to the global oceans treaty that we apparently support. Surely it is pretty obvious that the privatisation has failed. Let us bring the industry back into public ownership, and ensure that we have reasonably priced, clean water and investment rather than profit-taking. My last point concerns a global issue. I will say this very quickly, because I have only a minute left. The war in Gaza has already cost 40,000 lives, and surely now is the time to do a number of things. First, we should demand a ceasefire with all the vigour we can bring to that. Secondly, we should end the supply of arms to Israel: it is our bombs, in part, that are being used to bomb Gaza and have taken the lives of 40,000 people. However, it is also a question of the withdrawal of the occupying forces. Surely peace can come if we do something about it. I hope that the defence review coming up will be not just about increasing defence expenditure but will look at the global situation and see what we can do to promote a peaceful, sustainable world and defend human rights and democracy in the world. In the last Parliament I was a member of the Council of Europe, and I enjoyed defending the principles of the European convention on human rights and the universal declaration of human rights. We can make a contribution for a peaceful, sustainable world if we want to.