Iran

Debate between Rupa Huq and Yvette Cooper

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The right hon. Member is right to raise the broader instability across the region, which has been fuelled by the Iranian regime’s actions, including some of the extremist proxies that it has supported. He is also right to say that the instability in any country in the middle east has implications for the Gulf, causing much wider security ramifications and instability. We are alert to all those issues, and are discussing them with allies.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

After the false dawns of the Arab spring and the “zan, zendegi, azadi” movement, I ask my right hon. Friend to stand firmly with the Iranian diaspora here—many of whom came after the ’79 revolution—against this brutal, repressive and tyrannical regime, particularly those who are critical of it from here? The TV station Iran International—which is all the more needed at a time like this—had to move from its Chiswick headquarters because of kidnapping and threats to its journalists. It is at a fortress-like undisclosed location now that there is a communications blackout.

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend will be aware of the strong action that my hon. Friend the Security Minister has taken on transnational repression, including from Iran. People who live in the UK need to feel safe on our streets and safe to debate and communicate, and they should not feel that they are in any way under threat from an overseas regime.

Crime and Neighbourhood Policing

Debate between Rupa Huq and Yvette Cooper

Tuesday 31st January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

The Welsh Government already do take a different approach in a significant way: the Welsh Government have worked with police and crime commissioners in Wales to support and fund additional PCSOs, and that has made a difference in terms of neighbourhood policing on Welsh streets.

The Government have tabled an amendment to our motion so that they can vote against Labour’s plan to increase neighbourhood policing. That is what Government Members are voting for tonight—they are voting against Labour’s plan to increase neighbourhood policing. Instead, they want us to welcome their efforts to increase police numbers, but who cut them in the first place? It was Tory MPs and Tory Ministers who voted to cut 20,000 police officers from forces right across the country—from our neighbourhoods, from detective work and from response teams—and now they expect everyone to be grateful because they are trying to put some of them back. Twenty thousand experienced police officers gone. The Tories claim that they are on track to reverse the cuts. Actually, they are not, because the number of officers leaving policing has been increasing. For example, North Yorkshire police have said today that they are leaving 120 vacancies unfilled so that they can make their budget add up.

The police are not ending up on the streets, either. More of them are now behind desks because police staff have been cut and bureaucracy has gone up. More of them are dealing with mental health crises and missing persons. After 13 years of Tory government, the NHS and social care cannot cope, and the police are having to pick up the pieces, and there is a huge shortage of detectives, because there has been no national workforce plan, and everyone is having to try to plug the gaps.

There are 6,000 fewer neighbourhood officers and 8,000 fewer PCSOs, with the number of PCSOs having halved since 2010. Neighbourhood teams have been decimated. People say they do not see the police on the street any more—that is because, across the country, they are not on the street any more. No wonder it feels like Britain is not working. Communities are being let down.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Ind)]

My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. There are 3,500 fewer PCSOs now than in 2010, but it is not just the numbers; the estate is vanishing as well. She talked about people behind desks. In Ealing we used to have four police stations: Greenford, Hanwell, Ealing and Acton. Now there is only one. Does she agree that police need places to do their paperwork as well?

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Right across the country, over the last 13 years, police forces have closed police stations. Some of them are now houses in multiple occupation with problems with antisocial behaviour—you could not make it up! That is a result of decisions that Conservative Ministers have made.

It is good to see the Home Secretary here today, because we do not see her that much. If I am honest, I do not really know what she does. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been put in charge of dealing with antisocial behaviour. The Prime Minister has taken charge on small boats. The Navy has been in charge of patrolling the channel.