UK Aid Policy: Global Funding Trends

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Tuesday 7th July 2026 Westminster Hall

[Chris Elmore]

I understand the hon. Lady has significant experience in this field. I am talking about meetings that I have had with Ministers while serving as a Minister in the FCDO. They are clear that they want a different approach in how overseas aid is funded. They want a different approach in economic growth and investment. I have had more conversations with my ministerial counterparts on investment into digital infrastructure than I have on deciding to run a project for five years and then walking away from it. The hon. Lady and I are not going to agree. The difference for me is that I am not going to shout from a sedentary position—I have too much respect for the House for that.

My ministerial counterparts want long-term, genuine partnerships based on mutual respect and shared priorities, not paternalism. To reflect that new reality, we are modernising our approach to international development through four essential shifts. The shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), raised the first point, so I hope I can answer her question. First, we move from donor to investor. There has been some criticism around that term today, but there is a key point. It means partnering with countries to unlock growth, jobs and trade through innovative finance and private sector investment. That is what those countries are asking for, not the dictatorial response, “We will do this to you.” We are doing it with them, not to them.

Secondly, we are moving from service delivery to support systems, and are helping countries to build their own education, health and economic systems so that they can thrive without aid. Thirdly, we are moving from grants to expertise, leveraging UK strengths such as our world-class universities, the City of London, the Met Office, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and our education, health and tech sectors.

Fourthly, we are moving from international intervention to local leadership, working in partnership with local actors and organisations, rather than making interventions that are driven internationally. That is the key point that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about. Having better delivery on the ground with people who understand it has to be the way forward, so hopefully I can offer him some reassurance on his question to me and the shadow Minister.

Those shifts reflect how we are prioritising the ODA budget.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

The Minister is talking about the importance of long-term partnership. Last week, I was proud to lead the first British parliamentary delegation to Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. I had a number of conversations with Ministers, who asked for technical support from our Government, particularly on special educational needs and disabilities. Some 27% of Syrian children are disabled, following the war. They also asked for us to reopen the embassy in Syria, for business support and a lot of other things. Does the Minister agree that now is the right time for a new development partnership with the Syrian Government, as that nation hopefully builds from the ashes?

[Chris Elmore]

On the wider work on Syria, I agree. The Minister for the Middle East, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer), is working hard to bring about more support for the new Syrian regime, and we continue to prioritise that. My hon. Friend’s wider point about expertise is right, and that is exactly what the ODA changes bring about. We are using our expertise in education, health and—dare I say it—planning. I have had a number of conversations about planning and infrastructure investment in countries. It is about listening to what those countries actually want us to help with, rather than saying, “We think we know what is best,” so I agree with her wider point.

The shadow Minister and a number of other colleagues spoke about the multilateral system. I happen to be the UN Minister, and UN reform is very high on my agenda. That is not just about the Secretary-General’s discussions about UN80, but about wider reform of the international civil service and the international architecture system, which Baroness Chapman and I are leading on in the Foreign Office. The shadow Minister is right to challenge us on that, but I assure her that we have led the charge in my 10 months in office, not just as a member of the Security Council but as a leader in the UN multilateral space, to bring about more reform in the UN system.

Middle East

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

We have raised exactly this issue many times directly with the Israeli Government, the Civil-Military Coordination Center and the US Administration, because the hon. Lady is completely right: we are ending up with basic medical equipment being turned down because somehow it could be treated as dual use, or tent poles for basic shelter being turned down because somehow they could be dual use. That is deeply damaging and they are different standards to the ones that applied even 12 months ago. Even when there were previous ceasefires, we managed to get a lot more aid and support through. That is why it is crucial that aid is not weaponised. It is a basic human right and we will continue to argue strongly for an increase in humanitarian aid.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I welcome the new package of important sanctions announced by the Foreign Secretary. As I raised with Government Ministers last week, and as I discussed with the Foreign Secretary last night, last week I submitted a formal complaint to the Charity Commission about 32 UK charities that have over the past five years funnelled some £28 million to illegal Israeli settlements. The research into that was conducted jointly with Israeli human rights organisations. They include UK Toremet, which currently has a live donation page to Artzenu, which the Foreign Secretary has just announced sanctions against. I welcome the fact that she has raised this issue with the Charity Commission. I would say that it was made aware of these issues in July 2025 but has done nothing so far. Can she be clear that we are not just looking for an investigation, but a ban? In reference to the letter that I and 140 other Labour colleagues sent her this week, on a ban on trade with Israeli settlements, can she also now say that we will look to move towards a ban, on top of the guidance that she has issued?

[Yvette Cooper]

I welcome the work my hon. Friend has done on how charity systems are abused to funnel support to illegal settlements. She has rightly raised that issue not just with me but with the Culture Secretary and directly with the Charity Commission. The Minister for the Middle East will be meeting the CEO of the Charity Commission tomorrow to pursue exactly this issue to ensure there is a thorough investigation. Some evidence suggests that rules are being broken. We should not end up with UK gift aid being funnelled to illegal settlements. That clearly breaches all the standards that anybody across the UK would expect there to be, as well as the Charity Commission rules, which is why it is essential to look at this. On the wider issues around trade, we do not want trade with illegal settlements. That is why we will continue to look at strengthening the sanctions regime and work with allies across the world.

Middle East

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

They were, as they have been in every engagement with the Israeli Government since the signature of the 20-point plan. It is vital that aid gets in at the scale and in the manner envisaged under the 20-point plan.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I commend the Government’s action on Iran; they are doing the right thing where others in this Chamber would have led us down a different and dangerous path.

I agree with the Minister’s words on Palestine and Lebanon, but we are long past the point of words being anything like enough. I served in Hebron as a human rights observer 13 years ago, and what the Minister describes as happening there today was happening then. I have also visited Khan al-Ahmar, which the Israeli Government now wish to wipe off the map. Experts say that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and working to ethnically cleanse the west bank. The Israeli Government have passed a law to hang Palestinians. The Minister is my good and hon. Friend, and he says that the Government are not hesitating to act on this issue, but that is not true. Unfortunately, for far too long, we have been hesitant to take further meaningful action. Where are the comprehensive sanctions on the people committing these human rights violations and holding up aid from entering Gaza? Why do we not yet have a ban on settlement trade? Why have we not yet banned British charities that are funnelling money to settlements?

[Mr Falconer]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has long been committed to these issues, both during her time in this House and before, and is, I think, the only Member of this House who has been to Gaza since the conflict began. We have taken wave after wave of sanctions action. I want to reassure her that we treat these issues with the seriousness that they deserve, and I am sure I will be returning to the House in due course to update her.

International Development

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

The Foreign Secretary is aware of the impact of humanitarian aid and how it saves lives in the midst of the most horrific situations that humans experience on this earth. She will also be aware of the vital role that UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, play in co-ordinating humanitarian actors in the midst of these crises. Will she set out the impact of these changes on humanitarian aid and on UN agencies? May I also say that her recognition of and focus on women and girls really matters, and many of us strongly support that?

[Yvette Cooper]

I welcome the work my hon. Friend has done over many years, and continues to do, on development and support for those in conflict and crisis who face the greatest poverty and suffering. She is right to highlight the importance of the UN and, more broadly, multilateral aid institutions. There are institutions that need to be reformed to be made more focused and efficient, but we also need to continue to support those multilateral institutions, because that is what allows us to multiply the effect of any investment we put in. That international architecture can go far further than any one country alone, which is why we have been working to protect funding for some international and UN agencies. There are reductions in many different areas, but we have still sought to keep that focus on international institutions, where other countries have chosen not to and have pulled out.

Middle East

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I can confirm that I am seeing the Canadian Foreign Minister later this week. There are many international discussions under way. One of the things that I discussed with the Saudi Energy and Transport Ministers, whom I met while in the Gulf, was some of the work that they are doing, for example, to look at re-routing on different commercial routes and so on to ensure that different supply chains can keep moving.

The right hon. Gentleman is right that fertiliser is one of the important issues here. Most people have been focusing on oil, but fertiliser is hugely significant for a lot of different areas, and we continue to work across Government and internationally on what routes there might be. Also, bluntly, we want this conflict to reach an end as swiftly as possible, so that these global arteries for trade and transport get moving again.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

The Government are right not to be drawn into this war and that it needs to end, including with a negotiated agreement. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s comments about the situation in Lebanon, where I used to live and work as an aid worker. Does she share my serious concern at the conduct of the Israeli military, with at least 28 attacks on hospitals and health facilities in Lebanon so far and threats of forced displacement? The tactics used in Gaza were criminal and must not be exported with impunity.

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend is right that the humanitarian consequences of the Israeli operations are extremely serious already. It is estimated that over 800,000 Lebanese civilians have been displaced from their homes, which is already causing emergency problems with shelter. I have discussed this with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as directly with the Lebanese Government, and it is why we are providing £15 million in humanitarian assistance, both to Lebanon and to other neighbouring areas, to support people facing displacement.

International Women’s Day

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer) on her first speech, and welcome her to this place. I do not know whether she has noticed, but the Palace of Westminster is in need of some maintenance, so it is entirely possible that both her plastering and plumbing skills will come in useful in the very near future.

I rise to speak in my first International Women’s Day debate. I have followed these debates since before I was elected, so it is a true privilege to take part today. I have to say, if the composition of the Chamber were like this more often—by which I mean the number of men and women relative to each other—we might have different kinds of debates.

Today, we celebrate women in our communities, across the country and throughout our world. We celebrate extraordinary women who achieve incredible things for the good of humanity. In that context, it is a great but sad honour to sit opposite the coat of arms of my late dear friend Jo Cox, with whom I served on the board of the Labour Women’s Network. I think of her every time I come to this place and see her coat of arms. We miss her and her contributions dearly.

I have previously mentioned Jennie Lee, a proud Fifer who grew up in Cowdenbeath in my constituency and served two spells as a Labour MP. As well as having been the first ever UK Minister for the Arts, and the creator of the Open University, it is less known that Jennie served in the Ministry of Aircraft Production during world war two, keeping aircraft factories running during the blitz. She was called on to do so because of her no-nonsense attitude and ability to get things done. I take inspiration from that.

I am proud to follow Jennie as the 595th woman—among many thousands of men—elected to this Parliament, together with an unprecedented number of women MPs. Our Labour Government have important plans to advance women’s equality, from halving violence against women and girls to transforming women’s experiences of maternity care—a subject I discussed with the right hon. Baroness Amos just this week.

Beyond the women who are recognised for extraordinary achievements, we must be clear that the unseen work that women across the world do every day does not receive the recognition it deserves. According to the UN, women and girls do 16,000,000,000 hours of unpaid care work every single day. Their work is the very glue of families, communities and economies—countries could not function without it—yet it remains largely invisible, undervalued and unequally distributed.

Today, I want to sound a warning. We know that violent struggles are being fought for global power, but around the world, and increasingly at home, the struggle for power is being expressed as a struggle for control over women and our bodies. My hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Laura Kyrke-Smith) and I have written about that together this week. There are many shocking examples of the battle to control women’s bodies. As my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) mentioned, the oppressive regime in Iran has been desperate to prevent women from dressing in the way they want to, despite the incredibly brave protestations of amazing women there in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death.

As the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) said so eloquently, in Afghanistan, the Taliban have tested the limits of whether the world will stop them enforcing gender apartheid, by forcing women out of schools and workplaces and into the home. They looked for, and found, the answer they wanted: that the world does not care enough to stop them.

In Sudan, which is suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, rape and sexual violence is routinely used as a weapon of war. At the recent Munich security conference, which I attended, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary spoke powerfully about her visit to Sudanese refugee camps and the horrific accounts that she heard there, including of the systematic rape of girls as young as eight. I am proud to be a former chair of The Circle, the global feminist organisation founded by Annie Lennox. Only this morning it shared with me data showing that sexual violence in conflicts worldwide has increased by 25% in the last year.

In conversations about a shift in the global order, there is an increasing subtext of the need to control women’s bodies. We see that in some of the attacks on the legitimacy and funding of the United Nations. I worked with the UN in my previous work. Let us make no mistake: the UN would benefit from many reforms, but starving its institutions of funding to do work that no one else will do, for people no one else will help, is a grave error. That work includes providing contraception to women in war zones and refugee camps, so that they have some basic control over their bodies in situations where they have control over almost nothing else. In the context of domestic cuts to our own aid budget—a source of concern to many of us—we must do everything possible to preserve support for women and girls. I know that the Foreign Secretary is doing important work on that.

We must not content ourselves by believing that such misogyny only exists abroad. Matt Goodwin, the Reform candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, said that women who do not have children should be taxed more, and that young women need an education in fertility—as if “The Handmaid’s Tale” was something we should aspire to. He seems to believe that women who choose not to have children, or who cannot, are somehow failing in their duties. Reform has said that, were they in government, the Equality Act—the basis for much of the progress we have made on women’s rights in the UK—would be repealed. Shame on them.

Online, British women are stripped of the agency we have over our own bodies, exemplified by Grok weaponising women’s bodies through nudification. Our Labour Government are right to crack down on such apps. My hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) had the truly awful experience of someone using that technology to make a fake video of her being chloroformed and “prepared for rape”. That makes the comments by the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam), in the previous statement all the more unacceptable. The intended humiliation of women online is not simply cruel or misogynistic, although it is certainly both. It is intended to instil fear, to signal that some violent men believe that they are entitled to dominate women and to normalise such abhorrent behaviour.

Last week, ahead of International Women’s Day, I met members of the Fife violence against women partnership. We discussed the more than 5,000 incidents of domestic abuse and the more than 1,100 crimes of indecency reported to the Fife police last year. We know that many more will have gone unreported. They also shared with me their concerns about social media and the misogyny spread online by so-called male influencers. I heard shocking reports about some of the things that local schoolboys have said to female teachers—comments that they have learned online. They included female teachers being told by boys that they teach, “You’re so ugly, I wouldn’t even rape you.”

Male influencers online also seek to spread the idea that the role of the tradwife is what girls and young women should aspire to in life. This is the idea that women belong only in the home, and that we should all take our fulfilment simply from cooking meals for our husbands and rearing children. This online misogyny is spread by the likes of Andrew Tate, the late Charlie Kirk and far too many others, and it is aided by harmful algorithms. Perhaps it should not surprise us that a new global survey has found that younger men increasingly believe that a wife should obey her husband, and that men are expected to do too much to support equality. That is not an accident; transnational organisation is making that happen.

The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights has found that $1.18 billion was pumped into European movements dedicated to rolling back women’s rights between 2019 and 2023. That funding came from 275 different actors, including church-run non-governmental organisations and far-right populist parties. Russia was the biggest source of donations, and the United States the second biggest—especially from American Christian nationalists. That American funding is now accompanied by financial help from the US Government, who have set aside $200 million to support MAGA-friendly think-tanks in Europe. Let us be clear: this is designed to spread their ideology, including here in the UK. When we, the decent majority, both in this House and outside it, confront the grassroots arm of the far-right—local groups acting in our communities—we must be clear that they are not just isolated local groupings of people; they are the grassroots arm of a well-organised international effort to reverse women’s rights.

Our Government are doing a huge amount to drive forward women’s equality on closing the pay gap on childcare, on tackling violence against women and girls, and so much more. I am proud of that work. But we face a dark threat to the fabric of our society from the organised misogyny that I have described. We must defeat it, and we have much to do.

Ukraine

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)]

As he marked the fourth anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine, following Russia’s illegal invasion, President Zelensky said that Putin “has already started” world war three. He went on:

“The question is how much territory he will be able to seize and how to stop him…Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves.”

It is humbling to address the House as we enter the fifth year of this conflict—seemingly a conflict without end; peace talks are faltering and at an impasse. The last four years of conflict in Ukraine have been savage, unrelenting and at a level of total war that we have been fortunate enough to become unacquainted with in this country during of our lifetime. The toll that has taken on the civilian population has been horrific: there have been over 15,000 Ukrainian civilian deaths, thousands more displaced, and an entire population whose lives have been put on hold, forever changed. We have seen lives lost, families devastated and future hopes and dreams shattered, yet Ukraine has held firm against the Russian onslaught. It did in 2022 as it does today.

The Government have remained steadfast in their support for Ukraine, and that same support was extended when they were in opposition. When we were in government, we stood four-square behind Ukraine from the very start, and we were the first nation to openly back the Ukrainian forces with weapons. This House has been united in its support, and that support has been vital. Not only is it there to protect Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of such flagrant disregard for international law, but it represents the FLOT—the forward line of own troops—for the defence of Europe.

We have all seen the changes that this war has brought: a new cold war—maybe even a phoney war—and a generational leap in the nature of warfare in just four years that has catapulted drones from a nerdy hobby to a horrific “Black Mirror” reimagining of modern warfare.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman talks about drones. A couple of weeks ago, I was at the Munich security conference, where I had the privilege of hearing President Zelensky speak. He said that in January, Ukraine was attacked by more than 6,000 Shahed drones, which are made in Iran, or in Russia based on Iranian design. Does he agree that the sheer scale of bombardment that Ukraine faces from those drones, and from countries that also wish our country ill, is just one reason why the United Kingdom is right to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes?

[Ben Obese-Jecty]

I wholeheartedly concur. The Iranians, in particular, are global leaders in exporting terror, backing, as they do, the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas. Their provision of the Shahed drone to Russia and the bombardment that the Ukrainians face lead to a terrible toll and are a terrible result.

Anyone who has seen any of the innumerable videos of first-person-view drone footage of soldiers being stalked and killed by drones cannot fail to appreciate the new reality of modern warfare. On the point made by the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward), the last year alone has seen Russia increase its use of drones by 200%. Such a capability sea change cannot be overstated.

Four years into Putin’s three-day special military operation, Russia has sustained a staggering 1.2 million casualties, 325,000 of them fatalities. That is fast approaching the number of soldiers that we lost in the entirety of the second world war. The majority of casualties—reportedly 70% to 80%—are now caused by drones. It is reported that Russia can no longer recruit new soldiers at the rate that they are being lost, and in the past fortnight, Ukraine has liberated 300 square kilometres in its southern counter-offensive.

We are four years into this conflict, and the remarkable bravery of the Ukrainian armed forces remains undiminished. Yes, we have supported them with matériel, intelligence, rapid procurement and funding, but the human sacrifice required to win, or crucially not lose, a war of sovereignty and survival is something that we perhaps do not address enough. Fifty-five thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since 2022—the equivalent of more than two thirds of our regular Army. From the contributions this afternoon, it is clear that Members on both sides of this House want an end to this conflict, and an end on Ukraine’s terms—one that does not see them acquiesce to the Russian threat that it has given so much to keep at bay.

In the broader context of European security, what comes next? There are significant lessons to be learned from the conflict in Ukraine. No war has been as visually documented at such close quarters as this. The Lessons Exploitation Centre at the Land Warfare Centre will have been busy shaping our future tactics. An example of that is the recently released outcome of NATO’s Exercise Hedgehog 2025 in Estonia, in which a team of just 10, training against experienced Ukrainian drone operators, were able to render two battalions combat-ineffective in just half a day. We are through the looking glass.

Last Saturday, the Defence Secretary wrote a piece for The Telegraph in which he explicitly stated:

“I want to be the Defence Secretary who deploys British troops to Ukraine–because this will mean that the war is finally over.”

But to quote Winston Churchill, that will simply be

“the end of the beginning.”

The Minister does not need me to tell him that the ceasefire will simply facilitate a reconstitution of Russian forces. To use an old adage, Russia will trade space for time. When it returns to its barracks in the Leningrad military district, it will be based only a few minutes from the Estonian border. Pskov, home of the 76th Guards Air Assault Division and the 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade, is just 35 km away.

The NATO Forward Land Forces already man the line in Estonia via Operation Cabrit—one of our ongoing commitments. The battlegroup deployed there serves as a deterrent to further Russian expansionism and belligerence. No longer just a strategic tripwire, it is now a force equipped with a capability in Project Asgard that presents a lethal recce-strike system—a force whose very presence provides Estonia with the security of the NATO umbrella; a force so vital that its ongoing presence is apparently written into Estonia’s defence strategy.

Gaza Healthcare System

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Mr Snowden]

I thank the hon. Lady for my temporary elevation; I enjoyed my 30 seconds as a Minister, but that is all I will get for now. I will come on to future aid, the volume of aid that needs to get in, dual-use items, to which I have referred, and other issues. I just wanted to pick up on and address some of the alternative facts.

The situation in Gaza is serious and severe. Hamas and their Iranian sponsors bear responsibility for the continued suffering. Hamas launched their attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. They have refused to disarm and have infiltrated and used civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as shields and military defensive positions. The whole House should be united in calling Hamas out, and it is important that the Minister gives us an update on the steps that the Government are taking to support the implementation of the 20-point peace plan for Gaza, including the removal of Hamas.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I am sure that everybody in this Chamber is absolutely opposed to the horrific Hamas attacks that took place on 7 October 2023. What confuses me is why the shadow Minister and his party continue to repeat Israeli propaganda points. I was an aid worker before I was elected to this place. I was in Gaza during the war. Can he give us some examples of all the things that he is repeating about the misappropriation and the stealing of aid? Can he give us one concrete example?

[Mr Snowden]

I will come on to the UN’s stats on the amount of aid that has been misappropriated shortly. I thank the hon. Member for her intervention, but I think it is a tad rich to talk about one-sidedness when the word “Hamas” was hardly mentioned in many of the contributions that we heard earlier.

The Government say that they have been calling for broader aid access, but calling for something is not the same as achieving it. We need to know whether Ministers have put forward specific, concrete proposals for the opening of individual crossings and entry points into Gaza, whether those proposals have been presented directly to the Government of Israel, and their response.

Will the Minister tell us what quantity and type of medical aid has been funded and prepared for this moment? Where is it currently stationed? How much of it has entered Gaza? Which organisations are distributing it? Critically, what new safeguards are in place to ensure that UK aid reaches innocent civilians, not terrorist groups? Aid diversion is not a peripheral concern; it is central.

Since the ceasefire announcement on 10 October 2025 and 11 February 2026, the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes that 1,532 aid pallets have been verified as being intercepted during transit within Gaza. Although the destination of the pallets cannot be confirmed, it does not require too much imagination to work out where they have ended up. That is why we cannot discuss Gaza’s healthcare collapse in isolation from the wider political and security situation—the two are inseparable. The ceasefire provides an opening, but a ceasefire is not peace, and the Government seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge what is needed to convert one into the other.

If the ceasefire is to translate into something sustainable, Hamas must be removed from power once and for all, and their terrorist infrastructure must be dismantled. Events of recent days—the violence between Hamas and armed groups and clans within Gaza—underline precisely why Hamas cannot be permitted any future role in the governance of the territory. Hamas have no regard for human life or human dignity; they never have.

That brings me to governance. Rebuilding Gaza’s health system without addressing who actually governs Gaza is an exercise in futility. Have the Government had any meaningful say in the composition of the transitional Administration? Has anything of substance on governance reform emerged from the so-called memorandum of understanding with the Palestinian Authority—a document that did not even address corruption or antisemitism in school curricula? If the Palestinian Authority is to play an extended role, it must implement the most significant reforms in its history. That includes on healthcare, welfare, education, and frankly, basic democratic accountability.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Falconer]

I am sure my colleagues are tired of me refusing to be drawn on concrete steps in advance of taking them, but we treat this question with the utmost seriousness, as we have done all through these discussions. We will of course respond should the already significant restrictions on NGOs, including well-respected British NGOs, further tighten in the days ahead.

I will return to some of the other questions put to me. There is a UK contribution to the CMCC, and we are seeking through that work to ensure that the aid access increases into Gaza, and that some of the vital governance questions for the future are addressed. I am pleased to reassure the shadow Minister that we raise those points on a regular basis; I raised them with Palestinian counter- parts just last week.

There has been some important progress on a whole range of Palestinian governance questions. I think the shadow Minister referred to some of the so-called “pay for slay” arrangements; there has been an important announcement from the Palestinian Authority ending that practice. There were important announcements, including on a commitment to a demilitarised Palestinian state, in July during the two-state solution conference, which I was proud to be a part of. We will continue to raise those questions.

Nobody is under any illusions about the scale of the threat that Hamas poses. We continue to be committed to, and to discuss with our counterparts, fully decommissioning Hamas’s weapons and ensuring that there is Palestinian leadership, including through the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which has been implemented in recent weeks. We will continue our efforts in those areas.

[Melanie Ward]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Falconer]

I cannot, because I wish to give my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud two minutes to wind up at the end.

I am sure that we will return to these questions over the coming weeks. As my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) pointed out, there are pressing deadlines ahead. Given the importance of the issues we are discussing, in recent days the Foreign Secretary travelled to chair the most recent session of the UN Security Council on the middle east as its president. We will continue to give these questions our full attention, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud for the opportunity to speak to them.

[Dr Opher]

I thank all the speakers who have contributed to what has been a very passionate debate. I have spoken to many British doctors who have worked in Gaza, and what we are presenting here—the sabotage of the healthcare system—is real. It is going on now, and we must deal with it rather than brushing it under the carpet and blaming Hamas.

[Melanie Ward]

Does my hon. Friend agree with me on the need for justice and accountability for horrific acts that have taken place in hospitals, including a massacre in the grounds of al-Shifa hospital, and a situation in Nasser hospital where many babies were left to die following Israeli military action?

[Dr Opher]

I absolutely agree. We must get to the bottom of those things because they must not be allowed to happen again. I propose that the Minister talks to Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care about us, as a nation, providing healthcare to people in Gaza as much as we can. That is something that I have discussed with that Minister. We must be positive here and try to relieve the suffering of Gazans, because everything I have heard has been appalling.

I thank all Members and the Minister.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Government support for the healthcare system in Gaza.

Middle East and North Africa

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

For reasons that I am sure the right hon. Gentleman will understand, I am not in a position to give a detailed update on the reports that he alludes to. I simply underline the point that I made in my statement, which is that the freedom of assembly and the right to protest are inalienable rights of the Iranian people, and we want to see the Iranian Government respect that.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for all his work on Yemen, which gets too little attention. It is a personal commitment of his. The humanitarian crisis there is truly horrific. As he said, over Christmas, the Israeli Government banned 37 international humanitarian organisations, many of them British, from delivering lifesaving aid in the state of Palestine. They include Medical Aid for Palestinians, the International Rescue Committee, Action Aid and Médicine sans Frontières. In doing this, Israel follows in the footsteps of other aid-banning regimes, such as North Korea, Russia and Myanmar. More civilians are dying as a result. We know from the past two years that words and statements have no impact on the behaviour of this Israeli Government. When will the UK take real action and impose sanctions on all the Israeli Government officials who are involved in this illegal, inhumane ban on humanitarian organisations?

[Mr Falconer]

My hon. Friend speaks with considerable experience of delivering aid in Palestine. She will know that I will not comment further on sanctions, but the question of the NGOs’ ability to operate in Gaza is obviously vital for the very pressing questions facing the Palestinian people, and the British Government will continue to raise it.

Venezuela

Melanie Ward Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The undersea cable issue is important, and we have considered it not just in terms of UK defence, but internationally. We have discussed it at NATO, and as part of our alliances. It is why we must continue to take much more seriously the operation of the Russian shadow fleet in our waters.

[Melanie Ward (Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy) (Lab)]

There has been much discussion of international law, but what matters is that it is upheld at such a dangerous time in the world. Our country is less safe when it is not upheld. In the context of Venezuela and Greenland, will the Government reaffirm their commitment to the UN charter as a key instrument of international law, and will they vote accordingly at the UN Security Council?

[Yvette Cooper]

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.