Speeches by Lammy.

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his remarks and the tone with which he made them, because in matters of war it is always important that this House can speak with one voice. On proscription, I refer him to the work of Jon Hall and remind him that we are dealing with state threats. To be absolutely clear, no coun…”

“My right hon. Friend is right to put on record our thanks to former EU High Representative Baroness Ashton for all her work to get the JCPOA agreement. The previous Government and successive leaders of the Conservative party also worked to secure that agreement. It is hugely important that we get back to diplomacy. It …”

“With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will remind the House that the Foreign Office has been responding to two crises in this past week. The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer), will update the House on the Government’s exten…”

“Every colleague I have spoken to over the last few days has emphasised diplomacy and de-escalation; I reassure my hon. Friend of that.”

“I do not believe that that sits behind the action that we are seeing at this time. I do believe that the way forward is de-escalation and diplomacy.”

“As I said before, this is an academic course, non-combat. We have extremely high standards in this country, and it is important that we share them—although in the instance that he raises, this is fewer than ten people.”

“The hon. Gentleman brings tremendous experience to these matters, but he will understand that it is right and appropriate that I leave that to the international lawyers.”

“I remain hugely concerned about the appalling human rights record of the Iranian regime, but who runs Iran must, quite properly, be a matter for the people of Iran.”

“Yes, I will do all that I can.”

“The right hon. Gentleman puts it well. We should also mention what those in Iran are doing to destabilise neighbouring countries—Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq—with their proxies. We absolutely have to keep our guard up in relation to Iran.”

“My hon. Friend will be pleased to hear that I spoke to the director general at the beginning of last week, reassured him of our full support and thanked him for all his work that is ensuring a common understanding of what Iran is doing and why we have to act.”

“This is a precautionary measure. The Government would be irresponsible if we did not account for all possibilities at this time.”

“Yes, 100%.”

“The right hon. Member will know that, working with partners, we have capabilities that can ensure that our people are as safe as they need to be. He is right to reference RAF Akrotiri. The work of our colleagues in Cyprus, Bahrain and Qatar is hugely important at this time.”

“Balance it we must, because those are the issues that we are currently dealing with. We remain determined to press for what we want to see in Gaza and to stand up for those we are hugely concerned about in the west bank—my hon. Friend will have seen the statement I made last week in relation to that—as well as being ab…”

“Israel has been raising its concerns about Iran for years. It is an existential threat, and one that we recognise, which is why we have been working in concert with our partners in France and Germany on this issue for so long, and it has remained a cross-party issue.”

“Yes, I will. The hon. Gentleman is right to bring to mind the human rights record in Iran. I remind the House that just three years ago, Iran arrested 20,000 people, executed many, and many died, all because a young woman—Mahsa Amini—did not cover herself up. She died in prison. That is the regime we are talking about.”

“At this Dispatch Box, I speak as Foreign Secretary, not as a lapsed member of the Bar who qualified in 1995.”

“Each military situation is different. There was a particular context at that time of ballistic missiles coming in and a particular request. We had the assets that could support, and we obviously make those assessments, as the hon. Gentleman would expect, with our regional allies depending on the circumstances and the c…”

“I would first urge the hon. Member’s constituent to register his daughter’s presence, to recognise that we are surging staff to the region and that the way out at the moment is through Jordan, and to reach out to staff. The hon. Member can reach out on the hotline if that is what his constituents so wish.”