Speeches by Whittingdale.

“Mayor Klitschko, it is very good to see you. Can I say how much we admire you and the people of Kyiv for your extraordinary resilience? About four weeks ago, you suggested that people who could leave Kyiv should do so. Is that still the position? How many people have left? Does it make it harder to look after and suppo…”

“Mayor Klitschko, we know that there have been reports of attempts to assassinate the President. I knew Andriy Parubiy, the former Speaker who was murdered, very well. You are in a very high-profile position. In your office, you are publicly visible. To what extent do you feel at risk, and how is that affecting your abi…”

“May I tell the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, in relation to his previous answer, that the Foreign Affairs Committee repeatedly asked for Lord Mandelson to appear, but he refused to come, and that what the Committee did hear, from the permanent under-secretary, was that Lord Mandelson would be entitled to a pay…”

“In December, I asked the Prime Minister to make it clear that his visit to Beijing could go ahead only if Jimmy Lai was released. He responded: “It is important that we continue to engage, so that we can raise this issue”.—[Official Report, 17 December 2025; Vol. 777, c. 910.] That clearly achieved nothing. Will the Mi…”

“The league table of NHS trusts shows that the percentage of patients starting treatment for cancer within 62 days in Mid and South Essex is 21%, which puts it bottom of 121 trusts. Can the Minister say what additional help will be given to the Mid and South Essex NHS trust to recruit the additional staff it needs, and …”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and actually he anticipates my next point. I asked the permanent under-secretary whether or not Lord Mandelson was still on the civil service payroll and was told that he was not. When I asked whether a settlement or payment had been made, I was told that he had resigned but that his…”

“I completely share my hon. Friend’s astonishment. As further revelations come out about the behaviour of Jeffrey Epstein, particularly in relation to his links with Russia and other hostile powerhouses, one would have thought that the Government would say, “Please, if there is anything involving Peter Mandelson, we wis…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are two possible questions. First, why did the British Government never ask the US Government, who they knew had all this material from Jeffrey Epstein, whether it contained any additional information that might be relevant to the appointment of Peter Mandelson? Equally, we are…”

“We have heard some very powerful speeches in this debate. It is a credit to this House that we are discussing this issue and the appalling behaviour of Jeffrey Epstein in a way that is not happening in Washington. However, what we have heard in the last few days has been truly shocking. There have been the photos, the …”

“That was made absolutely clear right from the start. Indeed, the permanent under-secretary described this as a political appointment, which was made on the direct instruction of the Prime Minister. I want to go through the three stages. The first stage was the conflicts of interest form. As the Chair of the Foreign Aff…”

“I completely share the view of my right hon. Friend. Like her, I went through a process in which I was required to get rid of shareholding interests, which were rather smaller than those held by Lord Mandelson. This is just one of a huge range of questions to which we need to know the answers.”

“Once we get the revelations from the documents as to precisely what occurred in the case of Lord Mandelson, that is bound to raise questions about what procedures were followed in the case of other appointees, particularly Jonathan Powell, who in many ways is the Foreign Secretary of this country. We were told that the…”

“I have one question that is relevant to where we are going. Given what the murder of thousands of citizens in Iran and the involvement of the Iranian Government in terrorism acts across the globe, is there any justification in international law for America to take action against Iran?”

“And the non-recognition of the ICC by the United States does not change anything—it does not give them any ability to pursue an action in their own system.”

“Are you saying that immunity is part of international law?”

“How does the International Criminal Court issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin?”

“This is the latest in a succession of interventions by the United States in South America, or in the western hemisphere, if you like: we have had Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua and so on. To what extent does this represent a continuation of the policy that was initially expressed through Monroe and Roosevelt, and is now calle…”

“I have to say to my hon. Friend that I regarded the whole session as a sort of masterpiece in Sir Humphrey-speak—an awful lot of words that conveyed very little substance. I absolutely understand the necessity of not revealing information that may be damaging to national security. However, as one or two Members have al…”

“Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee were told by the Iranian ambassador that 80% of the deaths were the responsibility of ISIS-style terrorists. Will the Minister continue to give every support to journalists, human rights activists, and all those who are seeking to uncover the evidence to demonstrate who in the I…”

“I have one question that is relevant to where we are going. Given what the murder of thousands of citizens in Iran and the involvement of the Iranian Government in terrorism acts across the globe, is there any justification in international law for America to take action against Iran?”