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Ms Harman: We were absolutely right to oppose the Government who, in their attempt to find cuts without getting people into work, ripped away the benefit to punish those who were most vulnerable, including young people. We have said that we will make sure, using the windfall levy from the privatised utilities, that all those under 25 will have either a job or training or a combination of the two or will be in full-time education. They will not simply be left without jobs, training or benefit, which is what the Secretary of State has done.
Mr. Lilley: I thought that I would have got an answer from the hon. Lady, but I did not. I think the sentiment was that we were wrong to remove the benefit but that Labour will not replace it.
My second question is whether the Opposition propose to remove income support from those aged 18 to 25, replacing it with the sort of provision that we have made for 16 to 17-year-olds. I understand that to be the case, although the provision--
It being half-past Two o'clock, the debate stood adjourned.
Debate to be resumed upon Monday next.
Ordered,
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Conway.]
Mr. Matthew Banks (Southport):
It is an enormous privilege and pleasure to have the opportunity to initiate a debate on the important subject of security in the middle east. I am particularly pleased that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Member for Richmond and Barnes (Mr. Hanley), is in his place to reply to the debate. I hope that, as he did on 24 July when I initiated a similar debate, he will be able to answer my points and make plain the Government's position because Britain has a major role to play in helping to bring about a lasting and comprehensive peace throughout the middle east.
As I have said, I initiated a debate on this subject on 24 July. Many jobs and many lives have been put at risk and many lives have been lost as a result of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. Everything that the United Kingdom, together with our European partners, friends in the Gulf and the United States can do to bring about peace is to be welcomed.
On 24 July I expressed the hope, which is no doubt the hope of thousands if not millions of people throughout the world and especially in the Gulf, that in the coming months, in the aftermath of the Israeli elections, we would see some real progress. I was optimistic and at that time was prepared to take a kindly view of Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Netanyahu's stand and the way in which he was pressing ahead in trying to find a peaceful solution to the problems.
I regret to say that some three months on there has not been the sort of progress that many of us would have liked. One is beginning to come to the view that the Israeli Government are not prepared to act. I hope that that is not the case, but if there is a shred of truth in that suggestion I hope that Mr. Arafat, who has been statesmanlike over the past few years in trying to further peace, will do his best, as he has done in recent months, to ensure that the Palestinian people do not revolt against any aggression.
I wish that there had been progress in the past two or three months and I regret the fact that there are presidential elections in the United States. Our United States allies played a significant role in Madrid and Oslo in bringing about what I thought was a firm basis to move forward to peace. I have no doubt, and I know that this view is held by many, that the only way forward is along the lines of United Nations Security Council resolution 242. Land for peace is the way forward. I hope that those of us from outside the Gulf, playing an important and supportive role, as the United States and United Kingdom Governments are doing, will be able to support the people at the sharp end to ensure that the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination while at the same time addressing the equally important issue of the security of the state of Israel. Those of us who take an interest in this subject recognise that Israeli security is especially important.
The middle east peace process is a linchpin of our regional security policy, which is in search of a comprehensive regional peace settlement. Despite the
difficulties of the post-Israeli election period, there is a way forward. I do not subscribe to the view that Oslo and all that that entailed is in tatters.
The United Kingdom, perhaps more so than France, has an important, fair and non-partisan role to play in bringing the two sides together. I hope that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State will be able to assure me that, as soon as the United States presidential elections are over, the UK Government will bring further diplomatic pressure to bear on our American allies because they have enormous influence with the Israeli Government, of whichever political hue.
Once through those elections, the United States has a major role to play in ensuring that we press ahead on land for peace and, in particular, that Mr. Netanyahu and his Government are left in no doubt by their allies overseas, including the UK, that they need to do more in real terms to bring about peace. In particular, Mr. Netanyahu will have to accept that the only way forward is to stick to the agreements that the Israeli Government were part of and signed up to not so long ago.
President Chirac's recent visit to Israel and the occupied territories illustrated the fair and sensible path forward that the UK Government have charted in recent times. President Chirac was a little too partisan in his approach, although no doubt it went down especially well in France. The middle east is volatile and we will not achieve that comprehensive peace settlement unless the allies of Israel and of the Arab people support them in a way that is not too partisan.
Iran and Iraq still pose a threat to the region's security and I hope that Her Majesty's Government will continue to engage in security measures, particularly the monitoring of what is going on in and around those countries. Sometimes, those countries posture in a way that is of great concern to some smaller Gulf nations.
I am especially pleased that my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary will shortly visit Israel, the occupied territories, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. I gather that he is to meet Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Levy, and Mr. Arafat in Gaza. I am pleased that my right hon. and learned Friend will visit not just Yemen, but the United Arab Emirates, one of our oldest allies in the region, which is approaching its silver jubilee. As he said recently, the United Arab Emirates is an
I pay particular tribute to Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan An-Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates President, who has played such a supportive role in relation to the Palestinians. I am pleased that the UK Government continue to give aid to the Palestinians in the interim before a peace settlement. Nor would it be proper to fail to record our appreciation of His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum and of the United Arab Emirates Minister of Defence, His Highness General Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. There is a way forward for Israel and the Palestinians, and I hope that those peoples will one day be able to live together in the same peaceful, prosperous federation as we see in the United Arab Emirates.
It is not long since the Gulf war. Recently, there were highly successful elections in Kuwait. I pay tribute to the people there who have gone about their business so responsibly and are turning the corner. However, I regret--following my remarks on 24 July--that there has been insufficient progress in respect of Kuwaitis missing after the Gulf war. I pay particular tribute to Sheik Salem. I am pleased that, following the recent elections, he has been appointed Kuwait's Defence Minister.
It is pleasing that Syria is playing a more supportive role in a peace settlement throughout the region. Stability is possible but, for the Israelis and Palestinians, it must be on the basis of resolution 242 and land for peace.
I want to give my right hon. Friend the Minister a little more time than he might have expected to address the issues that I have raised and to state the Government's position on the hiatus that has followed the Israeli elections. However, I wish to raise one further matter that is important to both the Gulf and the United Kingdom, in ensuring peace and stability in the middle east.
I am particularly concerned about the activities of certain individuals from a number of different countries who live and work in and around London and the UK. They enjoy free and open access to our country but are involved directly or indirectly in supporting terrorist activities in the Gulf. One thinks particularly of the Algerians, Saudis, Bahrainis and Egyptians. I pay tribute to the work of President Mubarak and the Egyptian Government in bringing about a peace settlement.
That--
(1) in respect of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Bill, notices of Amendments, new Clauses and new Schedules to be moved in Committee may be accepted by the Clerks at the Table before the Bill has been read a second time; and
(2) if the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Bill is committed to a Committee of the whole House, further proceedings on the Bill shall stand postponed; and that as soon as the proceedings on any Resolution come to by the House on Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office Bill [Money] have been concluded, this House will immediately resolve itself into a Committee on the Bill.--[Mr. Conway.]
2.30 pm
"important country with the potential to play a significant role in the region's economic and political development".
I pay tribute to him and to my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade for the way in which the Foreign Office and the people responsible for trade are now working much more closely together in the interests of trade between the UK and those Gulf countries.
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