Cuba: Humanitarian Situation

Richard Foord Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Elmore]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for the work he does as the chair of the APPG. I have been pleased to engage with him since he took on that role. Just to reassure him, as I did in our meeting, we are using the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the UN central emergency response fund to ensure that the funding is given to the correct agencies to support the Cuban people. That is the point: we are using agencies that are trusted in the region and then providing additional support through the WFP. We have fuel management specialists, so that aid can actually be delivered to the Cuban people. He is right to be deeply concerned, as we all should be, about the humanitarian conditions that the Cubans are living in. It is our job, as the UK Government, to find ways to ensure the aid goes directly in. That is what we are doing.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

US sanctions on Cuba have been stepped up since Marco Rubio became US Secretary of State. Will the Minister talk about what representations the UK Government have made in Washington about the so-called Donroe doctrine as it relates to Cuba?

[Chris Elmore]

As I have said in previous answers, engagement remains at the highest levels, including at the British embassy in Washington with the US State Department, Secretary Rubio and deputy Secretary Landau, and between, again, Secretary Rubio and the Foreign Secretary, the former permanent under-secretary at the FCDO and the Deputy Prime Minister. That work goes on constantly in terms of engagement in relation to Cuba and many, many other issues relating to US-UK bilateral relationships.