Yvette Cooper MP: speeches

Speeches

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We do not want to see any military action in Greenland, and it should not arise, because this is a fellow NATO country. We are NATO members and we should work on our security together.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Throughout our history, there have been tensions. Since the second world war, there have been tensions around the issues of the rules-based order and the international law that we have championed throughout. During the cold war, there were big tensions between major countries, and there are tensions in some of the debates that take place now about global powers and spheres of interest in different hemispheres. As for how the UK should navigate through that, we continue to maintain and uphold the importance of international law, the rules-based order and the international framework of law because we believe that is in our interests, and is the right thing to do. However, as part of that, we have to maintain rules-based alliances, including the NATO alliance and the transatlantic alliance, which are built on, and underpinned by, our values and laws. That is important too, and it is crucial when it comes to Ukraine, which my hon. Friend has worked on for a long time.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Let me address some of the hon. Member’s bigger points about the international rules-based order and global power politics. He and I are old enough to have experience and reflections on the cold war, which was all about great power politics and difficulties. Alongside those big military global tensions, we had worked hard post the second world war to develop a rules-based order. This has been a part of global history for a long time: the tensions between how we maintain international law and an international rules-based order and how we engage with different competing interests, sometimes from some of the biggest countries in the world and sometimes from some of the smaller countries in the world who have particular power in particular areas. In terms of the UK’s approach, we continue to believe in the importance of a rules-based order and of such an international framework. We also engage with the world as it is—the world as we face it. We need to be able to do so and to be agile in responding to that.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  The instability in the region has been heavily exacerbated and driven by the Maduro regime, given the scale of migration and trafficking, the operations of criminal gangs and the escalating influence of Iran, Hezbollah and Russia in the region. As my hon. Friend rightly says, we are the penholder on Colombia. We support the peace process that was agreed and we have worked closely with the Colombian Government on sustaining that peace process. We believe that is extremely important. We will continue to do that through the UN and with all our allies.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  I have been in touch with the US Secretary of State about our position on Greenland, and the Prime Minister made it extremely clear today. We have made it clear to the House that we feel strongly that it is important that Greenland is part of Denmark and that the future of Greenland is for the people of Greenland and nobody else.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Yes is the answer to the hon. Member’s questions. We are continuing to raise and promote international law through the United Nations and the Security Council; we are continuing to raise the importance of international law with the US Administration on a range of issues; and we are continuing to argue for a democratic transition in which Venezuelan assets should be used for the Venezuelan people.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  On Colombia, for example, we have worked closely with the Government of Colombia. We continue to be the penholder on Colombia at the UN and continue to work closely with it. We have also made representations on aspects of the US national security strategy, where we take a very different view from the US. I know that the right hon. Gentleman has a long history in this area, but it has included support for the Maduro regime, which is now being investigated for crimes against humanity.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  The UN Security Council has been discussing Venezuela today, as we would expect the UN Security Council to do on a significant issue. We have deep intelligence and security co-operation with Five Eyes countries. On this particular operation, we were not involved or informed in advance, and nor were other countries.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is exactly right. The nature of the economic crisis in Venezuela over the last decade has pushed huge numbers of Venezuelans into extreme hardship. It is one of the reasons why so many Venezuelans have left the country; an estimated one in four Venezuelans have left the country over the last 10 years as a result. This should be a country with a very strong economy. It is very important to build that economy up, but crucially it has to be to the benefit of the people of Venezuela, not criminals or corrupt regimes.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  I strongly disagree with the hon. Member’s characterisation. We have a strong security partnership with the US and other countries, and not just through NATO but through a direct security partnership. The US is our strongest security ally and our alliance is based on values and principles. We continue to sustain that relationship as part of our support and continued respect for international law.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  I think I have been clear not only that rules matter and that international law matters, but that we need to ensure that we look at the different circumstances of different situations and rightly approach each one in turn. That is why we have today set out our position on Greenland. I caution hon. Members against creating equivalence between different situations in different parts of the world and between very different circumstances in very different countries. We have to be realistic about the differences between them in the approach that we take.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Let me say to the right hon. Gentleman that we do, I hope, agree on the brutality of the Maduro dictatorship and that it is better for Venezuela not to be led by somebody like Maduro. Therefore, the most important thing now for Venezuela is for it to have a transition to democracy. I have spoken directly to the US Secretary of State about that and also about the potential role the UK can play. Unusually, we have a very senior and experienced chargé d’affaires in Venezuela, who has long-standing relationships with the Venezuelan opposition and the regime, and also, of course, we have a close relationship with the US. That puts us in a particular position and gives us a particular responsibility to ensure progress keeps being made towards that democratic transition. Stability will not be maintained unless there is a transition that has the will of the people. We have made very clear our commitment to international law and the way that it must guide our decisions and UK foreign policy. We will continue to raise it with our partners, both in public and in private. It is important that we do so. As for Government legal advice, the right hon. Gentleman will know that the ministerial code is very clear about the Government not publishing or commenting on different legal advice.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Promoting international law in the most effective way also means promoting the rules-based order and the rules-based alliances that we have. It means being able to raise issues around international law both publicly and privately in a way that has the greatest results to defend the rules-based order. That is what we will continue to do, and that, frankly, is what is in the UK’s interest.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Again, to draw equivalence between different countries is the wrong approach. It does not recognise the scale of damage done by the Maduro regime or the fact that, in order to promote international law, we must promote the partnerships that underpin it. We need to work closely with the coalition of the willing, which is meeting tomorrow to discuss Ukraine, and ensure that there are US security guarantees in place, which are an important part of our security alliance with the US. On Greenland, we and other European countries have made our position clear.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We should strengthen our European partnerships, which is what we have been doing, and strengthen our investment in defence—again, that is what we are doing. The transatlantic partnership remains important. It is what we will discuss this week with the Americans, when discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. The security guarantees we have been discussing, which involve the US, are also about the security of Europe, Ukraine and the UK, and, ultimately, about the upholding of international law.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We have strengthened our relationships with our European partners—indeed, I have been in touch with the Danish Foreign Minister today on the issues around Greenland—and we will continue to support the rules-based international order, the UN charter and international law. I would warn Members against making equivalence here with what Putin has done in Ukraine; Russia invaded a country led by a democratically elected President Zelensky, and thousands of children have been kidnapped. We should be careful about what we say and its implications.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We continue to support the UN charter, which is the foundation of our peace and security. We will continue to support it and its principles in all our international debates.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  I reiterate a point that I have already made: there have always been challenges and strains around frameworks of international law and the realities of particular issues in different parts of the world. The UK has always argued for the maintenance of the rules-based order, and for the alliances that uphold it. For us, one of those alliances is the transatlantic one. We need both to maintain support for the rules-based order and to maintain the crucial partnerships that have upheld that rules-based order—we need to be able to do both.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We do not currently have a timeline for that transition. The Venezuelan opposition have said that the first step has to be an end to political repression, the release of political prisoners and the safe return to Venezuela of opposition politicians, because without that there cannot be free and fair elections. So the first step that we are pressing for is an end to political repression, and that is what we are urging the acting President to do.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We have discussions going on in the coalition of the willing. There are preparations for them as we speak, because the discussions are being taken tomorrow. Those are all about strengthening our national security as part of strengthening Ukraine’s national security.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  I think the right hon. Member is referring to Greenland and Denmark. Let me be really clear: Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. We have said so extremely strongly and we will continue to do so. The Prime Minister has said so today, and I have been in touch with the Danish Foreign Minister today. The right hon. Member will have seen the strong statements not just from the Danish Prime Minister but from other leaders, particularly across the Nordic states. This is immensely important to us. We are all NATO allies and we all need to work together. That is part of how we strengthen our security.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  The UK continues to argue for international law and to ensure that it guides and frames the decisions that we take as part of our foreign policy, and I have directly raised the issues of international law, particularly around Venezuela, with the US Secretary of State and we continue to do so. Upholding international law also means upholding some of the alliances that sustain that international law, and that is what we will continue to do.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We continue to support international law, to promote it, both publicly and privately, with our allies, and to pursue and sustain the alliances that are important as underpinning parts of the rules-based order, including our NATO alliance and our transatlantic alliance. We maintain those long-standing partnerships as part of upholding international law.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  Our country has particularly strong relationships with the Venezuelan Opposition as a result of the work of our chargé d’affaires and our embassy in Venezuela, which we have maintained when other countries have not maintained theirs. As I have said, that puts us in a particularly significant position, in terms of being able to support a transition to democracy, which is what we have always argued for. That is exactly why I have spoken to María Corina today. We will keep in close touch, so that we can recognise, as a first step, their call for an end to political repression in Venezuela, which must happen.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  We are working with the US Administration on support for Ukraine, which is about support for a democratic, sovereign state that has been threatened and invaded by an authoritarian Russian regime. It is the US that is pursuing peace and discussing security guarantees for Ukraine, so I really think the hon. Gentleman’s characterisation of the world we are in is just wrong.