Oral Answers to Questions

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Ukraine needs the support of its allies to counter Russia’s threat, but Belgium and the European Central Bank are holding out against the European Union’s using frozen Russian assets to give it the funds that it needs. The Wall Street Journal has reported that while discussing the original 28-point plan, Kirill Dmitriev pitched to Steve Witkoff the idea that US firms could be the first to receive payments from those assets for lucrative contracts in Russia and Ukraine. It is time for the UK to show international leadership, even as Belgium, the ECB and the US vacillate, so will the Foreign Secretary support my Bill that would allow the UK to seize the £30 billion in frozen Russian assets held in this country and put them at Kyiv’s disposal for its defence?

[Yvette Cooper]

We have been clear about the importance of mobilising the Russian sovereign assets in order to invest in and support Ukraine. As the hon. Gentleman will know, the proposal put forward by the EU, which we support, is for reparation loans based on those sovereign assets that would allow us to maintain the appropriate stability and approach to the financial markets, and also to mobilise those assets to support Ukraine. The purpose is to ensure that Russia pays for the damage that it has done, as it should, and we will continue to press for those Russian sovereign assets to be mobilised for Ukraine.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

Two weeks ago, the Security Minister came to the House to describe sustained efforts by China to infiltrate Parliament, and to announce that the security agencies were launching an espionage action plan, yet when Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister and, today, the Foreign Secretary, are asked about Beijing’s super-embassy, with its extensive underground facilities in the heart of London, they hide behind the statement that the decision is quasi-judicial. No one seriously believes that; it is the most political decision that will be taken next week. Beyond the threat to our democracy, what signal does the Foreign Secretary think that approval of the super-embassy would send to Hongkongers in this country, who have escaped state-sponsored intimidation only to find that this Government are considering making it easier for Beijing to continue persecution in the UK?