Speeches by Morello.

“Dr Kattan, do you have anything to add that you would like to see the UK do?”

“The hon. Gentleman rightly points out the need to invest in the NHS. Does he recognise that imposing NICs on primary healthcare providers such as my constituency’s Weldmar Hospicecare, which provides vital end of life care to residents and must raise £26,000 a day to fund its service, will result—”

“I was quite interested to link a couple of things that you said together. You mentioned earlier that the Palestinian people need to choose their leaders, but at the same time, Hamas won an election and then there was not an election ever after. Obviously, we have had the same leader of the PA for a number of years, des…”

“Do you recognise that there are two things happening here? One is that we are closely approaching the point at which recognising anything is to recognise a state that cannot exist because Israel has fully annexed it, at which point it has no value whatsoever. The other is the fact that at this point, where we are in a …”

“You were talking earlier about how a number of Arab states had de-prioritised the Palestinian cause, with a lot of them choosing to emphasise trade with Israel, and Pegasus and all the other things that were available through those relationships. In your view, where are the Arab states now? Is Saudi Arabia the key to t…”

“You mentioned in your previous answer about securing funding from the Treasury, which is timely. When Sir Philip visited us last week, along with the finance director, we were talking about funding for maintenance of the estate and the overseas footprint and the fact that that has traditionally been serviced by selling…”

“You mentioned in passing there that you do not think that the British Council is doing as much as it should or wants to.”

“Also, it is being forced to pay back its covid loan at commercial interest rates. Do you think that that is consistent with trying to get it to do more?”

“If you do not secure the adequate funding, if it is £250 million, what has to be cut, or is there silverware that can be sold?”

“Foreign Secretary, you started off by saying that you have been on the road, having visited some of our posts overseas. What is your view of our global footprint? Do we have the right people in the right places with the right facilities? If we do not, where are we wanting?”

“It is a very short one then. Under a Trump presidency, how confident would you be that the USA would fulfil its Article 5 obligations?”

“How confident are you under a Trump presidency that the USA would fulfil its article 5 obligations if it was called upon?”

“8. What recent steps his Department has taken to deliver the ECHO 2 programme.”

“The ECHO 2 programme is crucial to delivering the new global communications network for the FCDO. The Minister mentioned that it is due for completion in January 2025, but will it remain within budget? What are the plans to ensure that it delivers its full technical and financial benefits? Does the Minister think that …”

“We have obviously focused on soft power. In the Grade report for the FCDO on the World Service from 2020, Grade says that the World Service does not just support soft power; it also supports trade and national security. Do you agree that it supports trade and national security, and if that is evidencable in the way tha…”

“There is the CSR, but there is also the charter review coming up, which is theoretically another opportunity to look at a long-term model. What is the ask for the charter review?”

“Obviously, a lot of this comes back round to money, and you have referenced where we sit in global league tables—below the Qataris, on par with France, and pretty much half of what the Americans are spending. But then we look at Russia Today, at £1.5 billion, and China somewhere in excess of £5 billion, in terms of wha…”

“We have obviously focused on soft power. In the Grade report for the FCDO on the World Service from 2020, Grade says that the World Service does not just support soft power; it also supports trade and national security. Do you agree that it supports trade and national security, and if that is evidencable in the way tha…”

“There is the CSR, but there is also the charter review coming up, which is theoretically another opportunity to look at a long-term model. What is the ask for the charter review?”

“Obviously, a lot of this comes back round to money, and you have referenced where we sit in global league tables—below the Qataris, on par with France, and pretty much half of what the Americans are spending. But then we look at Russia Today, at £1.5 billion, and China somewhere in excess of £5 billion, in terms of wha…”