Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2019-11-05
Topic: International Affairs
Questions: Does not the blocking of Joshua Wong as a council candidate offend against the very basic principles of the Sino-British agreement, and what is the Secretary of State planning to do about it?; Let me be the first cockney MP to congratulate you on your new role, Mr Speaker; I look forward to your service in this House.Five of the 15 members of the Hamas political bureau have been designated as terrorists by the United Kingdom and the USA, but in the UK we proscribe only the military wing of Hamas. Is it not time that we proscribed the entirety of Hamas, rather than only Hamas as a military organisation and a terrorist organisation? Does my right hon. Friend agree that until Hamas renounces violence, celebrates peace and brings peace to the middle east, there will never be a peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinian state?; Heartfelt congratulations, Mr Speaker.Will the Foreign Secretary comment on the report overnight of the capture of the sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in north-west Syria? Does not this, and the death of the Daesh leader itself, underline the importance of our international alliances to keep British citizens and our communities safe from the threat of terror?; It is great to have a no-nonsense northerner in the Chair, Mr Speaker. Google turns around over £10 billion in the UK, making a typical profit margin of 22%, so it should pay about £420 million in corporation tax, yet it pays only about £70 million due to profit shifting. Will my right hon. Friend do all he can to press for international action to end this kind of disgraceful tax avoidance?; As the first Gavin Shuker MP to be called under your tenure, Mr Speaker, may I, too, offer my congratulations on your elevation?For 10 years in this place I have repeatedly raised with the Foreign Secretary and his predecessors the appalling human rights abuses in Kashmir. Further to our recent disappointing exchange of letters, can he give one single example of actions he has taken in robustly challenging the Indian Government’s revocation of article 370 of the Indian constitution?; Teesside also celebrates your election to the Chair, Mr Speaker. This morning, Israel’s Supreme Court confirmed its Government’s decision to deport Human Rights Watch’s director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir. That decision comes amid the worrying closing of civil society space for those advocating human rights in that country. Will the Government urge Israel to reverse its decision and allow Human Rights Watch to continue its vital work?
Dominic Rennie Raab (Conservative, Centre-right): We contribute to soft power in all sorts of ways, from our entrepreneurs and our world-beating innovators to the popularity of the arts and the English language overseas. The hon. Gentleman raises the specific issue of the British Indian Ocean Territory. We have no doubt about our sovereignty in that regard. It has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814; Mauritius has never held sovereignty over the territory. We were disappointed that what was effectively a bilateral dispute was referred to the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly. The point of principle is that that circumvents the basic tenet that the ICJ should not consider bilateral disputes without the consent of both parties.