Speeches by Lammy.

“Half a million people in Gaza have received essential healthcare as a result of UK funding, and it was very important to support UK-Med when we came into office. Over 600,000 young people in Gaza have received food as a result of our efforts, but there is a tremendous amount to do, as my hon. Friend knows. The threat t…”

“The right hon. Gentleman brings to bear his tremendous experience of these issues, which has been built up over many years and many different roles in Government and beyond. He is right to focus on the fact that Hamas cannot play a role, but he probably agrees with me. I never believed, as some in the Israeli Governmen…”

“We hold out that a two-state solution must be the way forward. We believe that normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is key, and that there must be Palestinian component. We will press to achieve that, and we will work alongside President-elect Trump and his team in the coming days to hopefully bring th…”

“The right hon. Gentleman centres the important work of the United Kingdom in relation to humanitarian aid in particular at this time. He will know that in order for the aid to get in, we have to have security. He will also know that there is a critical role for the United Nations, which can achieve about 250 trucks. It…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising the issue of hostages. I pay tribute to the 17 British nationals killed since the abhorrent attack on 7 October. Our hope is that three of the UK and UK-linked hostages will be released in the first phase, as they fall into the criteria for that release, which we anticipate will be ag…”

“I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for bringing his tremendous experience in the House to bear. He is absolutely right. He will be pleased to know that when I discussed these issues with President Abbas on Monday, he was complimentary about the conversation he had had with President-elect Trump on these matters,…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his tone and for raising those issues. He is right about UNRWA. As I have said, this first phase is a critical period, and I believe that withdrawing UNRWA would destabilise it. I would ask Israel to think very carefully about how we can achieve a surge in humanitarian aid if tha…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all her endeavours on these issues on behalf her Committee, and on behalf of this country. She is right that colleagues in all parts of the House, in this Parliament and the last, have shed tears about this most heartbreaking of conflicts. In my 25 years in the House, I have not seen…”

“I thank the shadow Foreign Secretary for her remarks and for her tone. Doing this role, one understands the effort that one’s predecessors have put in, so I want to put on the record once again that the right hon. Members for Braintree (Mr Cleverly) and for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) and Lord Cameron, before me, ma…”

“With permission, I will update the House on the deal announced between Israel and Hamas. Last night, US President Biden and Qatari Prime Minister Al Thani confirmed that negotiators had reached an agreement. While we await political approval for the text, the agreement is expected to come into force shortly after midda…”

“The hon. Lady will be pleased that we will very shortly launch our new soft power council, specifically to look in detail at this issue. I was pleased to secure further funding for the BBC World Service in the spending review, which was very important. As we move forward with our reset, we continue to discuss, particul…”

“The right hon. Lady raises an important issue. We will judge the new Syrian Government by their actions, not their words. We are, alongside allies, reviewing sanctions at the moment. I will not comment in detail on that, but we are clear that we want to see an inclusive Government who prosper. We have been pleased with…”

“It was important to get to India just a few weeks into office. I might pray in aid my great-grandmother on my mother’s side, who was from Calcutta. I look forward to inviting Foreign Minister Jaishankar to Britain later in the spring. It is important that we have a strategic partnership going forward. We have relaunche…”

“The UK and India’s Prime Ministers have committed to an ambitious refresh of the comprehensive strategic partnership. They announced that the UK-India trade talks will relaunch, which will deliver our joint ambition to take the UK-India relationship to even greater heights, and India is one of a handful of countries th…”

“The right hon. Lady comes to the Dispatch Box with chutzpah and a brass neck after a period in which we had about seven different China policies from the last Government, who left a huge £22 billion black hole in the economy. I might remind her that President Trump has invited the Chinese President to his inauguration,…”

“Ensuring the safe release of all hostages, including British national Emily Damari and three others with strong UK links, is a top priority for this Government. We have continually supported hostage talks, and support the efforts of the American, Egyptian and Qatari negotiators. We are exercising every diplomatic lever…”

“It was important to be with Mandy Damari in Israel yesterday and to speak to the Israelis, and to be in Saudi Arabia just before that, particularly to speak to my Egyptian counterpart and to press these issues. As Joe Biden has said, we may well be on the brink of a deal, and I know that the whole House will want to se…”

“The hon. Gentleman is right. We want to see Emily Damari free, and all the hostages, particularly the UK-linked hostages. We know from our contact with their families—I am thinking about the moving event that we had in No. 10 on 30 September—that there will be deep psychological scars, and we must commit to doing all w…”

“First, we do all we can to establish proof of life. The right hon. Lady will understand that this situation is fast moving, and even post any deal it can take some degree of time before the hostages come out. I would therefore not want to be pushed on that issue at the Dispatch Box, but I want to assure her that we are…”

“Since coming into office we have taken significant action: calling, of course, for a ceasefire—we have been calling for a ceasefire since December 2023; suspending relevant arms sales, as has been set out by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Development; and increasing the amount of aid to the Occupied Palestinian …”