Official Development Assistance

Carla Lockhart Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I think my hon. Friend has a point about the way our constituents will view the decisions that we take. We need to make sure that everything we do on our aid budget, development and our foreign policy abroad attracts and commands their confidence. If we somehow immunised our ODA budget, in a way that no other budget domestically has been immunised, I think they would ask questions, if not be very concerned by that approach, so I think my hon. Friend is right.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP) [V]]

In the light of the announced reduction in the aid budget, will the Foreign Secretary commit to ensuring that aid will be focused on areas of utmost need, such as tackling the systemic issues and cultures of impunity, which enable modern slavery and violence to affect the world’s poorest people?

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. I have set out the list of priorities, including conflict prevention, promoting accountability in countries and dealing with violence—particularly violence against women, but all violence against civilians in conflict situations. We will run the allocation process to make sure that we safeguard our top priorities, which include those that she mentioned, as best we can in the reduced financial envelope that we face.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

Carla Lockhart Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[James Cleverly]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is in the gift of the Iranian regime. We will continue to call on it to do the right thing, which is to release all British dual nationals in incarceration and allow them to return.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

I wholeheartedly support the comments made by other hon. Members. I urge the Minister, the Foreign Secretary and, indeed, the Prime Minister to bolster efforts to bring Nazanin home. Her life of fear is similar to that lived by many religious minorities in Iran. Earlier this year, the Christian human rights activist Mary Fatemeh Mohammadi received a suspended prison sentence of three months and a directive to receive a flogging of 10 lashes. What is the Minister doing to protect religious minorities in Iran?

[James Cleverly]

We continue to have concerns about Iran’s human rights record and the treatment of minorities. Although that is an allied issue, it is separate to that of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the other dual national detainees. We continue to work with Iran at all levels to encourage it to improve its human rights record.