Crispin Blunt: I have listened to the debate with huge respect. One can understand the emotional attachment of the chair of the all-party group on Yemen to the country of his birth, which he expressed beautifully, and his enormous pain about what is happening there. We have heard, very strongly presented by the right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), the shadow Foreign...
Crispin Blunt: I am afraid that we cannot escape the central dilemma: there has been an illegal usurpation of power in Yemen. Having read Michael Knights’ scholarly analysis of the development of the Houthi movement, which covers its radicalisation, the elements within it and how it has built alliances within Yemeni society, we should be under no illusion: the international community has no choice but...
Crispin Blunt: My right hon. Friend’s military analysis, which is based on his experience, particularly in the National Security Council—I am sure he learned a great deal with the Royal Tank Regiment, but obviously he has had access to Government briefings on this matter—will bring enormous comfort to the Houthi forces who are defending Hodeidah. I happen to disagree. Hodeidah is the...
Crispin Blunt: I am minded to agree with the hon. Gentleman, who has made a number of useful interventions in the debate. Given the success of the Emirati side of the coalition, which has rolled up the southern part of the country with remarkable success, bringing its land forces to the gates of Hodeidah, where the Saudi part of the coalition has maritime investment and total air supremacy, I do not believe...
Crispin Blunt: I want to continue my train of thought, because the failure to deliver the vital ground in this conflict has two critical consequences. It means that the international community cannot get the scale of aid that is required into Yemen because it does not control the port. Even if the port facilities are destroyed, the international community would be able to put back together sufficient port...
Crispin Blunt: I will not, if the hon. Gentleman will forgive me. This is the vital ground to get supplies into Yemen and to stop the Houthis earning their income off the imposts that are levied on the good people of the world through their development programmes that are trying to get supplies into Yemen. When Hodeidah is added to Aden—Hodeidah is the key port in Yemen, being much the biggest and the...
Crispin Blunt: On that important point, is the hon. Lady aware that the attack on the bus has been investigated by the coalition, and the Saudi coalition has accepted responsibility and undertaken to try to find the families of those who were lost in that incident, in order to pay them compensation? It has taken responsibility for that action.
Crispin Blunt: I am afraid that my right hon. Friend cannot get away from the fact that there is a perfectly sensible alternative analysis here. Hodeidah is the vital ground in this conflict, and it is the control of Hodeidah that finances the Houthi rebellion through all that it rakes off from the international aid coming through the port. If Hodeidah is secured by the coalition, the conflict will be on...
Crispin Blunt: In opening this debate, the hon. Gentleman has, to a degree, drawn an equivalence between the behaviour of the Houthis and that of the coalition. The truth is that we are actually on the side of the coalition, which is unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council. It is trying to suppress the Houthi rebellion, which is against the legally constituted Government of Yemen, and while we...
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to (a) assist the development of the IT sector in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and (b) foster links between UK and Palestinian companies.
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria his Department use to determine whether an international deployment of the Armed Forces is designated combat or non-combat.
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the gap between demand and provision of social care services for disabled children and their families; what steps he is taking to address any such gap; and if he will make a statement.
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will establish a disabled children’s fund to improve early intervention services such as short breaks for disabled children.
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the gap between demand and funding for health services for disabled children and their families; what steps he is taking to address any such gap; and if he will make a statement.
Crispin Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will establish a disabled children’s fund to improve health services for disabled children.
Crispin Blunt: I congratulate my right hon. Friend and his predecessors on their leadership on the difficult issue of getting progress in a humane and decent direction, which has undoubtedly happened. There can be no more eloquent testimony than the fact that the shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), who has worked assiduously in this policy area...
Crispin Blunt: It would be frightfully good for him.
Crispin Blunt: I congratulate my hon. Friend on this extremely welcome statement. As a fellow Surrey MP, he will be only too aware of the importance of the space industry to our county and of the astonishing success of the work in our county for the country. Will he confirm that if the EU remains determined on this astonishing act of self-harm as regards the development of the Galileo project, it will have...
Crispin Blunt: As the Opposition spokesman implied, Mr Speaker, you probably could have granted this urgent question on any day in the past four years, since the London Bridge investment work began and the timetable fell over after new year 2015. Will my hon. Friend the Minister warn the Opposition, who focus simply on the GTR franchise, that there is a complex set of overlapping responsibilities in this...
Crispin Blunt: It is just over 16 months since the Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously—leavers and remainers together—concluded that “the previous Government’s decision not to instruct key Departments to plan for a ‘leave’ vote in the EU referendum amounted to gross negligence. Making an equivalent mistake would constitute a serious dereliction of duty by the present...