Last Monday in Parliament there was a significant discussion organised by Cat Smith, Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood about the e-petition 648577 “Create a Palestinian Family Visa Scheme for Palestinian people affected by war” with nearly 104,000 signatures including a large signing in Brighton and Hove and a few areas of Sussex. Her initial comments began

“I thank all the individuals and organisations who supported the petition for their hard work in achieving the threshold, particularly Gaza Families Reunited, which I had the privilege of meeting in the run-up to this debate. For many of those involved in supporting the petition this is an issue that impacts on their loved ones.”

She closed after many other comments and a great number of contributions from other MPs.

“I thank everyone for taking part in this debate, which has been possibly the best-attended petitions debate I have had the privilege of introducing. I know that three hours is a lot of time to commit as a Member of Parliament, but I am sure that those who have taken part did so because of the passion that we all feel, as do the more than 100,000 people who signed this petition.”

There were important debate points made by two of our Sussex MPs. Caroline Lucas, of Brighton Pavilion, the largest area for signatures and Peter Bottomley. Caroline spoke first

“The hon. Member is being generous; I thank her for giving way and congratulate her on her introduction so far. Would she agree that the current system is simply not working, because the requirement to enrol biometrics at a visa application centre is simply impossible to meet? The one in Gaza is closed, and people cannot get to Ramallah or Jerusalem. In effect, people are caught in this sickening Orwellian Catch-22 where they cannot enrol their biometrics because they cannot leave Gaza, and they cannot leave Gaza because they cannot enrol their biometrics. This is a sickening situation to leave people in. Does she agree that this is yet more evidence of the need for a bespoke family reunion scheme, as was done for Ukraine and Hong Kong?”

The comment from Peter;

“In one of the Government responses to the petition, they said that applications could be made through “Egypt, Jordan and Turkey”. Are we to understand from the Minister that there might be a way of making applications without having to go from Gaza to Egypt, Jordan or Turkey?”

Also last Monday there was a debate about “Risked-based exclusion”, the text for this is on the Parliament website is

“The House of Commons Commission has drawn up proposals to exclude MPs from the Parliamentary Estate in certain circumstances, following a risk assessment. This followed concerns, particularly from unions and parliamentary staff, that MPs who are under investigation for sexual misconduct, or in some cases sexual offences, can continue to attend Parliament. This briefing explains the proposals, how MPs would approve changes, and the position in the House of Lords.”

It was debated last Monday but no Sussex MPs contributed.  However, after the discussion, 169 MPs approved the proposals of which 123 were Labour, MPs, including Peter Kyle from Hove, 21 SNP’s, 11 Liberal Democrat’s, 8 Conservative’s but none from Sussex, 2 Plaid Cymru’s and Caroline Lucas from the Green Party. The rejections, a total of 168 came mostly from Conservatives and interestingly one Liberal Democrat. This meant the debate was not prevented from being closed. The Sussex MPs and Government ministers voting against it were Gillian Keegan and Mims Davies. The others were Jeremy Quin, Peter Bottomley, Sally-Ann Hart, Henry Smith and Caroline Ansell. Six Conservatives and one Labour MP in Sussex chose not to vote at all.

This afternoon there is the “Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on the Overseas Territories” with Henry Smith from Crawley, the subject is “The UK Government’s support of education for Overseas Territories students”. On Tuesday 14th May Jeremy Quin spoke in response to the The Commonwealth War Graves Commission. He reflected that

“We are approaching the 80th anniversary of D-day—a date of specific significance for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which refers to it as the Legacy of Liberation 80. The commission is right to say that the 80th anniversary commemorations may mark a tipping point between first-hand memory and national memory, and that the role of education will be ever more important in the years to come. I would therefore like my last words in this debate to be not my own, but those of Robert Piper, late of the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Royal Signals. He is a 99-year-old Normandy veteran who joined up at the age of 15, and I am proud to have him as a constituent. He retains an excellent sense of humour. When advised by his doctor that he had bad news and that Robert had cancer, his response was to say, “I went to Normandy. What do you mean, bad news? Every day is a bonus.” Robert once said in our excellent local magazine, All About Horsham:

“I have returned to Europe and stood in the middle of cemeteries filled with hundreds of soldiers, and I ask myself the question—why them, not us?”

That is a question to which these cemeteries should always give rise, because it reminds us of our obligation to remember, to be thankful, and to try to be worthy of the sacrifices made.”