Jim Shannon

I thank all hon. Members for their contributions. I thank the hon. Member for Leeds South West and Morley (Mark Sewards) for pre-reading my speech. He knew my four headlines, and mentioned the four of them in an intervention, delivering my speech in four words or thereabouts—that would have been a small speech for me. I know he has a deep interest in Sudan, and I thank him for coming along. I am pleased to see the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton). He and I share many deep interests, and Sudan is one of them. We understand the issue of persecution of those of Christian faith, other faiths and no faith. We understand the issue of human rights abuse, and Sudan is unfortunately the epitome of all the things that are going wrong. He also referred to article 18 of the United Nations charter, which is core to this issue, and to the UAE. The Minister has just confirmed that 10 or 12 states are involved in the supply of arms, which gives us some concern. It was nice of the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) to come along. He married a girl from Northern Ireland, so he is almost a Northern Ireland citizen. He focused on the Africa strategy. The Minister kindly replied to him and said that is something he brings up regularly. We thank him for that. The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp)—gallant Member that he is—is a great friend of Northern Ireland. He is a great friend of mine because of his service in the forces, and a great friend of all in this House for all he did to bring about peace. He focused on the 33 million people in need in Sudan. That is a massive figure. It is half the population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—that is how big it is. Such is its vastness that it could go from Liverpool down to the very south coast or from Liverpool up to Edinburgh. He referred to the killing of pastors and priests and the destruction of churches and mosques. If the law is to mean anything, the state must act; it cannot ignore these incidents. I thought that was important. He also underlined what the US is doing. I am sure it is doing something. It is sometimes easy to disregard that, but it is important to recognise, although it could be doing more to work collectively. I thank the Minister for his answers and for his tone. He gave us great encouragement, and his words were well chosen and well spoken. He referred to the UK’s role as the penholder and to the graphic violence. We do not need to go into that, but just thinking about it makes me feel bad, to tell the truth. The extra £146 million he mentioned will reach another 2 million people. He referred to the 12 states that are funnelling the arms to area, but it is encouraging to hear that Sudanese human rights defenders are collecting evidence of abuses. Some of the guys who are involved in the atrocities and bestial activities will be held to account someday. The Minister is right: the fighting must stop. We all wish that the fighting would stop. We should all be encouraged that our Minister and our Government are committed to trying to find peace. I suggest there is one more thing we all need to do. If we are not doing it, I think we should. We should pray every day for Sudan and its people. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered freedom of religion or belief in Sudan.