Martin Rhodes MP: speeches

Speeches

• 5 Mar 2026 · Commonwealth Troops: First World War · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South on securing this important debate and on his powerful opening speech. Many Commonwealth troops made the ultimate sacrifice for us. In my constituency of Glasgow North, there are a number of Commonwealth war grave sites and memorials that commemorate a total of 1,100 individuals. The Western Necropolis in Glasgow North alone contains 500 service personnel from both world wars who are laid to rest in Commonwealth war graves. Among them are Canadians, Australians and even American volunteers who served in Commonwealth forces. Those sites are an important reminder not just of the sacrifice that Commonwealth soldiers made, but of the role that Glasgow played in the war effort, from shipbuilding on the Clyde to the hospitals caring for the wounded. However, we must also take time to recognise the contribution of those Commonwealth soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice, yet, often due to their nationality, did not receive the recognition they deserved. These forgotten or neglected soldiers were often from the then empire, originating from places such as modern-day Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South and the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) made reference to Khudadad Khan, who was the first Indian Muslim to receive the Victoria Cross. We must do more to ensure that soldiers like Khan, and the more than 4 million British Indian Army soldiers who served in the two world wars, are adequately remembered. In my constituency, the Colourful Heritage charity has been working hard to promote those contributions through an exhibition in Kelvingrove museum and educational resources for schools across Scotland, helping the public and young people to engage with this history. More recently, Colourful Heritage, along with partners, has been granted planning permission to establish Scotland’s first permanent memorial to the British Indian Army in the grounds of Kelvingrove. The design was agreed on after consultation with community and faith groups, as well as with pupils across a number of schools in Scotland. The memorial reflects the diversity of those who served—Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and those of no religious faith. Thus far, they have raised more than £100,000, with the aim of raising a total of £270,000 to complete the memorial. I am sure that Members across the House will wish them well in achieving that important goal. As we reflect today on the contribution of Commonwealth soldiers to the first world war, I note that our understanding of it deepens over time, as new stories come to light and previously overlooked service is properly recognised.

• 5 Mar 2026 · Commonwealth Troops: First World War · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I recognise the important work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and its outreach and public engagement teams. I also recognise the huge contribution of volunteers in promoting that work. How we commemorate and who we commemorate must reflect the full breadth of those who served and sacrificed. I hope that the first permanent memorial to the British Indian Army in the grounds of Kelvingrove will be a testament to that. Madam Deputy Speaker, we must remember our shared past if we are to help build our shared future.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of UNRWA in ensuring the co-ordination and delivery of humanitarian aid. Its access must be unfettered; it must be allowed in and allowed to do the work that needs to be done on the ground. Last week, the UN reported that more than 13,000 households across Gaza were affected by heavy rain and severe flooding, with sanitation systems having collapsed as a result of intense bombardment and siege. Rainwater no longer drains properly and—now mixed with sewage—has flooded people’s tents. Save the Children staff report seeing children sleeping on the bare ground, with no shelter, in clothes sodden with sewage water. The already high risk of preventable disease is growing and health workers on the ground see sustained rates of malnutrition, diarrhoea and pneumonia. Such conditions and ailments are entirely avoidable in the modern world. Responsibility for those awful conditions lies with the restrictions and delays imposed by the Israeli authorities. Therefore, the UK must prioritise humanitarian access in all our diplomatic engagement on the future of Gaza.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairing, Ms McVey. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for opening the debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. Gaza’s healthcare system has been severely depleted. Israel’s campaign has destroyed health facilities, killed health workers and restricted vital medical supplies. The UN independent international commission of inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories reported in September that Israel’s actions, including the systematic destruction of the health system, amount to genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Although the recent ceasefire has allowed a greater flow of aid, including vital health supplies, more must be done to ensure that the level of supply meets the scale of need. As winter approaches, the health needs of Gaza remain dire. Israeli authorities continue to impede full humanitarian access—which is a legal obligation under international law, not a concession of any ceasefire.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  I agree—there is a huge priority in getting humanitarian aid in, and it is absolutely upon the international community, including ourselves, to do all that we can to ensure that flow of aid. To ensure that children and families have sustained access to aid and the services needed to recover and rebuild their lives, Gaza’s healthcare system must be restored. For that to happen, there must be a removal of all remaining restrictions and bureaucratic impediments to the entry of aid, especially food, water, fuel, medical supplies and other critical humanitarian items. I therefore hope the Minister will confirm that, as part of the UK’s involvement in the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre tasked with co-ordinating humanitarian aid and recovery in Gaza, he has set the critical and achievable objective of ensuring that British aid charities such as Medical Aid for Palestinians and Oxfam can operate freely and without restriction in Gaza, including with unhindered entry for staff, medical teams and vital humanitarian supplies. Many questions remain regarding the scale of continued suffering in Gaza. Why did UNICEF have at least 938,000 bottles of infant formula released only recently, when they were stuck at the border since August? How can a lifesaving vaccination campaign by UNICEF succeed when 1.6 million syringes and other vital supplies have been kept outside Gaza for months, blocked from entering despite the urgent necessity? Why, according to UNICEF, have at least 58 children been killed in conflict-related incidents since 11 October? The UK must redouble efforts to pressure Israeli authorities to maintain the ceasefire and allow UN-backed professional humanitarian agencies to reach people in need at scale with meaningful assistance. Only then will Gaza be able to rebuild its homes, health and future. A viable Palestinian state is required if we are to see a two-state solution. I look forward to the Minister’s response to this debate.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  I agree. I was referring to past actions, but this is not just about what has gone on in the past. People must be held to account for what is happening now. As I have said, the withholding of humanitarian aid is itself an act in breach of humanitarian and international law, and those responsible for it must be held to account.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  I agree. We have a ceasefire—a very fragile ceasefire—but, even if it is successful, we must ensure that people are held to account for what has gone before. We should not allow progress with the ceasefire to take away from accountability for past actions.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations · Hansard source

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  I agree. It is vital to have proper documentation of what is happening, and the point was made earlier about the need for journalists to have access, so that they can report on what is happening and we can hold people to account.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Gaza and Sudan · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s reference to the west bank in her statement. Others have made reference to the highest levels of attacks by settlers on Palestinians in the area. Will the Government now consider taking the step that other European countries are taking of banning all trade with illegal settlements?

• 10 Sept 2025 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this important debate. The importance of improving humanitarian access to help offset the intolerable hardship, suffering and misery that currently faces those living in Gaza cannot be overstated. For children alone, this war has been beyond cruel. Save the Children, for example, has recently reported that at least 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. To put that in perspective, the capacity of the O2 arena here in London is 20,000 people. More must be done to pressure Israel to reopen crossings and lift restrictions on movement. The UN-led co-ordination of humanitarian aid must be restored. That will once again allow professional and experienced humanitarian aid agencies to reach people in need at scale with meaningful assistance. I acknowledge the Government’s position that it is for the international courts, not Governments, to determine if genocide is taking place. However, looking at the evidence that we have all seen—air attacks, ground attacks, displacement of people, targeting of health services, attacks on aid workers, access to food as a method of control, and deliberate and consistent blocking of humanitarian aid—it is difficult to see how those courts will not reach the decision that what we are now seeing is genocide.

• 17 Jul 2025 · RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) for securing the debate and highlighting the role of the RAF unarmed Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during the second world war. The unit made a contribution that deserves to be remembered. As mentioned, it captured more than 26 million images of enemy operations and installations during the war. Without that vital information, the success of operations and, ultimately, the outcome of the second world war could have been very different. Beyond its strategic impact, the unit also deserves to be commemorated for the extraordinary level of sacrifice made by its members. Records show that the survival rate of unit personnel was proportionally the lowest of the allied aerial units throughout the war. So many lost their lives flying for the unit. Because of the solitary and secretive nature of its missions, some 144 of those lost have no known graves—perhaps making a memorial all the more important. In my Glasgow North constituency, there were two known pilots from the unit. The first was Wing Commander Lawrence Hugh Strain. Lawrence was born at 14 Berkeley Terrace Lane in Glasgow on 12 November 1876. Little is known of his early life, but by 1913 he was resident in Edinburgh, travelling to London to gain his pilot’s licence at Brooklands, which was issued in May 1913. With the declaration of the first world war, Strain joined the Royal Naval Air Service and served as a seaplane pilot on HMS Ark Royal between 1914 and 1918, seeing service in the Dardanelles, Gallipoli and Salonika. After the first world war, he married Ellen Margaret Howard in 1921 in Sussex. Research into his second world war service is still ongoing, as little information is available, but his name appears in the operational records of the early reconnaissance work carried out by the RAF in the second world war. He passed away after the war, in 1952, in Maybole, Ayrshire. The second was Flight Lieutenant Alastair Gibb. Alastair was born in 1918 in the Hillhead area of Glasgow, the son of Alexander and Margaret Gibb. Little is known of his early life except that, after joining the RAF, he trained as a pilot and after converting to Spitfires he joined 16 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, based in liberated Belgium. On 18 September 1944 he was scheduled to fly a reconnaissance sortie, but his Spitfire crashed, for reasons unknown, almost immediately after take-off and 25-year-old Alastair was killed instantly. Both pilots are examples of the many who worked tirelessly and often alone, risking everything to gather the intelligence that shaped allied strategy and saved countless lives. That is why the planned memorial to the unit is so important. It will serve not just as a memorial to those who gave their lives, but as a lasting tribute to the often-overlooked contributions of those who worked behind the scenes—or, in this case, high above the battlefield. We owe it to them to remember their names, tell their stories and ensure their legacy lives on for generations to come.