argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Northern Ireland Protocol: Implementation — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I had the opportunity to talk to Vice-President Šefčovič over the course of the weekend, on Friday night and on Saturday afternoon as well. As I mentioned earlier, he is very conscious of these questions. Although criticisms might be directed at some, he should be exempt from criticism because he is absolutely committed to working to resolve these issues in a practical way.
Northern Ireland Protocol: Implementation — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Andrew Gove (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Lady makes a very important point. In reflecting on the gains that have been made since the Belfast agreement was secured, we need to recognise that that agreement underpins the principle of consent. It made certain that Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom would be respected by all. It requires respect for every citizen in Northern Ireland, all communities, and all traditions. As a committed Unionist and as a Government who are committed to the United Kingdom, it is vital we demonstrate that daily. That is why appropriate action needs to be taken of the kind we outlined earlier. Every day, UK Government officials, national health service doctors and nurses, and people working in every aspect of government are working to serve the people of Northern Ireland as UK citizens. That is absolutely integral to the mission of this Government. I look forward to working with her and her colleagues to make sure that we move forward in the right way.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: Education
Graham Stuart Brady (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for repeating his commitment to ensuring that schools can reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. As he reflects on that, will he keep in his mind the sobering words of Professor Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, who said to the Education Committee that when we close schools, we close children’s lives, and went on to refer to 75 international studies that suggest significant mental health damage for children? Will he reiterate the huge importance of putting children’s mental health and wellbeing alongside the other onerous responsibilities that he bears?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: Education
Adam Afriyie (Conservative, Centre-right): Our world-leading vaccines programme will mean that deaths and hospitalisations for serious ill health will fall massively—probably to normal levels by around 8 March, when the top four priority groups will have been vaccinated. I am glad to hear the Secretary of State confirm that our top priority must be to open schools first and then move on, because parents are desperate to have schools opened, teachers want schools opened, businesses want schools opened and—God bless them—even our children are desperate to have schools opened. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that schools will be the first to reopen on or before 8 March?
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: Education
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): I can confirm what the Prime Minister has set out: schools will be the first in the queue for reopening. We will consider the data in the middle of this month, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will set out a statement after that, and we will give two weeks’ notice. Schools will not open before 8 March, and of course we will look at the data, as I set out in a previous answer.
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: Education
Matthew John David Hancock (Conservative, Centre-right): We have taken action very rapidly when we have seen rises in cases. The most recent example here in England was, of course, right at the start of this year, when we saw the sharp spike in cases and took very rapid action to close schools after some of them had been open for just one day. We do not take such measures lightly and we understand the impact that they have, but they were absolutely necessary.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for the tone of his response, and also for welcoming the international engagement, in particular at the UN Security Council. As he rightly remarks, as penholder, we have brought forward by a day a meeting on Myanmar at the Council as a matter of urgency, and that meeting will take place in New York this afternoon The hon. Gentleman mentioned sanctions on the military. I politely point out to him that we have already imposed sanctions on 16 individuals responsible for human rights violations in Myanmar, including six individuals named by the UN fact-finding mission report. However, of course we will work closely with our international partners to consider next steps in that regard and we will constantly consider all the tools at our disposal The hon. Gentleman asked whether we would support an international arms embargo. We are a long-standing supporter of an arms embargo in Myanmar. We worked with EU partners to secure and tighten a strong EU arms embargo following the 2017 Rohingya crisis. Since we left the EU, we have transitioned this into domestic law. Our autonomous sanctions regulations prohibit the provision of military-related services, including the provision of technical assistance, to or for the benefit of the Tatmadaw. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the case brought by the Gambia. We have been very clear in our support for the ICJ process, which is putting pressure on Myanmar, and particularly the military, to do more to protect the Rohingya. We have pressed the civilian Government to engage constructively and transparently, and we urge the military to comply with the provisional measures ruling The hon. Gentleman mentioned Bangladesh. We are working very closely with the Bangladesh authorities and we are speaking with the Bangladesh Government. We are the second largest donor to support the Rohingya who are currently in Bangladesh We are following the advice very carefully of our post in Yangon on the situation involving UK nationals. We will continue to update British nationals in that regard. They are advised to stay at home, to make only essential journeys and to continue to check travel advice and embassy social media pages. I have spoken with our ambassador on a couple of occasions over the last 24 hours, and we continue to closely monitor the situation.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Thomas Georg John Tugendhat (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my hon. Friend’s statement and agree with much of what the hon. Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) said. When looking at sanctions, we know that Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd is alleged to be paying out dividends of around $18 billion to $20 billion a year to the army. Is it not particularly galling that, despite this army claiming to serve the people and to put the public interest first by overthrowing a democratically elected leader, Myanmar is the single worst country in the world for vaccinating its citizens? Does that not demonstrate that, rather than being servants of the people, the Myanmar armed forces are its pillagers, its occupiers and its thieves?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, makes a very good point. The UK military, in contrast, has done a fantastic job of supporting the roll-out of vaccinations here. As he knows, we unreservedly condemn the military coup in Myanmar and the detention of members of the Government. The military’s action is not conducive to supporting the most vulnerable people, so we call for the peaceful reconvening of the National Assembly. The results of the elections in November 2020 must be adhered to, as must the express wishes of the people of Myanmar—they need a democratically elected Government who can help see them through this pandemic.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his co-operative tone on matters such as this. I believe we are all on the same page in this regard, and his comments about us working with international partners are absolutely right. Given our presidency of the G7 and the UN Security Council, we are using these opportunities to drive forward the international response, and that will include dealing and liaising with our friends in the EU. We all need to stand together to demonstrate that we will not stand for a subversion of democracy. We are talking with a broad range of international partners, including the neighbours of Myanmar, and especially the ASEAN countries. The hon. Gentleman mentioned aid. This year, the UK is spending £88 million in-country in Myanmar on supporting the people of Myanmar. In addition, since 2017 we have spent almost a third of a billion pounds supporting humanitarian aid and supporting the Rohingya who are displaced and have found themselves in Bangladesh.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Imran Nasir Ahmad Khan (Conservative, Centre-right): Like all Members of this House, I found myself deeply disappointed when Aung San Suu Kyi chose to take no action against the genocide of Rohingya, but that grave failure should not temper our condemnation of the quasi-constitutional military coup, which undermines the futures, freedoms and democratic rights of the Burmese people. Will my hon. Friend the Minister further outline what his Department is doing to promote the fundamental and universal rights of democracy, freedom and liberty in Burma in light of the recent events?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I know how passionate my hon. Friend feels about values and democracy, and I assure him that the United Kingdom places the highest premium on respect for democracy and the rules-based international system. We have been talking to regional and international partners about that, and we call on Myanmar to respect the principles of the ASEAN charter, including the rule of law, good governance, as I mentioned, and the principles of democracy and constitutional government.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Jack Edgar Brereton (Conservative, Centre-right): The actions of the Myanmar military are an assault on democracy and the democratically legitimate Government. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is vital that they immediately confirm the safety of Aung San Suu Kyi?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the safety of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Prime Minister had a phone call with Aung San Suu Kyi before Christmas and the Foreign Secretary was due to have a phone call with her this week. It is essential that she and all those who have been arbitrarily detained are released. We must receive assurances that their safety, wellbeing and rights are respected—I reiterated that to the Myanmar ambassador when I summoned him to Foreign Office yesterday. As I said, there should have been a call later this week, and we hope that one will take place to serve as an assurance of Aung San Suu Kyi’s safety and wellbeing, because it is vital that we are able to confirm that she is safe.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): Very much so. The Foreign Secretary is leading on this issue with the G7 and we hope to have some further news in that regard in the next day or so. We are absolutely on the front foot internationally in that regard. I know that the hon. Lady is passionate about this particular country. Let me be absolutely clear about what we are calling for: the military leaders must revoke the state of emergency and release the members of the Government and of civil society.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative, Centre-right): The events in Myanmar have shown that democracy is fragile. The reality is that the actions of the democracy-denying narcissist Trump in the past three months have undermined such values. Will my hon. Friend the Minister not only work with the G7, as he said, but impress upon the new US Administration how important it is for established western democracies to show strength and to stress how important it is that democracy is honoured? Will he ensure that the G7, as a group, moves together to ensure that this situation comes to an end?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for his question. We are absolutely working through the G7 and engaging the UN Human Rights Council. As I said, we are urgently convening the UN Security Council. We have, of course, engaged with our American friends at both official level and at Foreign Secretary level. Over the next day, we will be making sure that Myanmar is high up the agenda. We are using such opportunities to drive forward the international response and, as I said, we will not stand a subversion of democracy.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I think the reasons behind the Magnitsky-style sanctions announced a few months ago were pretty clear. We are absolutely clear that there were human rights violations in Myanmar and, I repeat, we sanctioned all six of the individuals named by the UN fact-finding mission report. We will obviously work closely with our international partners to consider next steps in this regard, but the UK Government’s priorities at this immediate time are to ensure that the military leaders revoke the state of emergency, release those held, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and reconvene the elected National Assembly.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Anthony James Holland Mangnall (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Minister’s statement. The events in Myanmar are a reminder that we need a strong international community to be able to respond to such events. With that in mind, I echo other Members’ calls for further sanctions. May I also draw his attention to the humanitarian violations going on and the need to create a preventing-sexual- violence- in-conflict body in this country with international co-operation to ensure that we can support survivors of sexual violence, genocide and human rights violations, document such cases and lead international criminal cases against the perpetrators?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I know how passionately my hon. Friend feels about these issues, particularly with regard to his work with the former Foreign Secretary prior to being elected to this House. I repeat that it is completely unacceptable for a democratically elected Government to be overthrown by the military in this way. We are, of course, working with international partners on all the issues he refers to, and we will continue to do so. We are monitoring the situation, and we have been very concerned about the humanitarian situation over the last 72 hours. As he will appreciate, following a military coup it is difficult to get to the places we need to be, but he is right to raise the issues and we will continue to monitor the situation extremely closely.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point, which is well made. As he will appreciate, the situation in the country is evolving rapidly. We are monitoring the situation as closely as we can, but we are also working closely with our partners. I talked about us convening the meeting this afternoon in New York so that we can have a joint response with the UN Security Council I assure him that we will ensure that we continue to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance, including for the Rohingya. We are alert to the possibility of all sorts of horrific violence, such as identity-based violence, being committed—there are reports of that. We are one of the largest donors to Rakhine state, which is one of the poorest states in Myanmar. Our assistance helps with education, nutrition, livelihoods and health, and we are supporting all communities.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on to raise this. We are working through multilateral forums to ensure that there is a strong and co-ordinated international response. As I have said previously, we have urgently convened the UN Security Council for today. We are also leading the way through the G7 and engaging the UN Human Rights Council. Given our presidency of the G7 and the UNSC, we are using these as an opportunity to drive forward the international response. We must take leadership and demonstrate that we will not stand again for subversion of democracy.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is right to raise this. We must ensure that there is accountability for those who have committed atrocities. The United Kingdom is clear that the Myanmar military undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in 2017, and we are pushing for those guilty of atrocities to be held to account. In our joint statement to the UN Security Council on 11 September, we called for Myanmar to make progress on this accountability, and in the current absence of a credible domestic process, all options must be on the table, including referral to the International Criminal Court.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Yes, we are engaging with a range of partners to encourage dialogue, peaceful resolution of the crisis and, importantly, the restoration of democracy. The Foreign Secretary has been speaking to his counterparts from other states and has a call scheduled with the US Secretary of State for later this week. He will also be speaking to the Japanese Foreign and Defence Ministers this week, and the Prime Minister is trying to arrange a call with his Japanese counterpart. We will work through multilateral forums to ensure a strong and co-ordinated international response.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. We will of course continue to work through all multilateral forums, including at today’s meeting of the UN Security Council, which we brought forward, and by pulling together our G7 partners, in order to have the appropriate response. I am sure the right hon. Gentleman would agree with me that what we want to see is the Myanmar military revoke this state of emergency. The civilian Government, Aung San Suu Kyi and civil society people who have been seized must be released. We want to see the reconvening of the National Assembly, as I am sure he does. It is absolutely key that Myanmar respects the result of the November election and, more importantly, accepts the expressed wish of the people of Myanmar.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nusrat Munir Ul-Ghani (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Minister’s statement. In a previous job, I was in Myanmar for the BBC. It is so depressing watching this new tragedy unfold. The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting today, which is of course incredibly welcome. Does the Minister share my concern that China’s stranglehold on UN institutions and its alleged closeness to the Myanmar military mean that it might stifle the meeting today and going forward? Can he offer any succour for people like me who have those concerns?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for her remarks. Of course, we must work closely with our international partners. That is why we have brought forward today’s meeting at the UN Security Council. Obviously, we cannot second-guess the outcome of the meeting this afternoon. I share many of my hon. Friend’s concerns about the ability of countries to veto action in that multilateral body, but be in no doubt that the United Kingdom is on the front foot and is leading the international response on this crisis.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I understand the point that the hon. Gentleman is trying to make. On the reference to genocide, we have been very clear that we support the current case in the ICJ process, putting pressure on Myanmar. I think the case will develop significantly in the coming months; we are monitoring that case very closely I do not have a crystal ball with regards to the points the hon. Gentleman raised about China, but we are going to very closely consider the legal arguments and, for example, establish whether a UK intervention would add value in the current case that has been brought to the ICJ.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): This is a huge setback for the people of Myanmar and for the development of open societies in the ASEAN region as a whole. The civil disobedience movement started by Government hospital doctors suggests an awful potential for protests and violence. While the Minister is quite right to highlight UK initiatives for an emergency session of the UN Security Council and with ASEAN, which has called for a return to normality, can I ask what contacts my hon. Friend and his Department have had with China to discuss the best way to return stability as soon as possible?
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend, who I know is extremely passionate, for all the work that he does on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government in that region. ASEAN does have an important role to play. I had meetings with the Thai Vice Minister this morning. Yesterday, I spoke with the Laos ambassador, and I have further calls with all ASEAN nations over the next 48 hours. It is important that there is adherence to the principles of the ASEAN charter, which includes good governance and the rule of law. We will, of course, be speaking with China in this regard, as it is a significant player in the region. We are completely clear that the principles of democracy and constitutional government should be returned for the people of Myanmar.
Myanmar — House of Commons, 2021-02-02
Topic: International Affairs
Nigel Adams (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her question. I know how passionate she is about Myanmar and the plight of the Rohingya. We have had meetings on this matter directly. We are using our penholder role to ensure that Myanmar stays on the UN Security Council agenda. We convened the Security Council three times last year to discuss the case brought by Gambia, covid and the situation in Rakhine and the Chin states. We have been very clear that Myanmar has to make progress on accountability. The case will develop significantly in the coming months and, as I said in a previous answer, we will be carefully monitoring developments to consider the legal arguments to establish whether a UK intervention would add value, but I am sure the whole House will want to see the outcome of the UN Security Council meeting in New York this afternoon.