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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab clashed with Labour’s Lisa Nandy earlier this week in the House of Commons. Ms Nandy accused the British government of supporting trade deals with countries that commit genocide. This sparked a furious rebuke from Mr Raab, who said the shadow foreign secretary was “a bit confused”.
Ms Nandy kept trying to interrupt Mr Raab during his rebuttal, prompting him to retort that she was “chuntering absolute nonsense”.
The shadow foreign secretary accused the Government of refusing to crack down on humans rights violations, given the Chinese government abuses in Xinjiang.
She said: “Does he regret whipping his MPs to support trade deals with countries who commit genocide?
“The sheer incoherence of that approach is what, time and again, causes the Government to come up short.”
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She continued: “It gives us the absurd spectacle of ministers standing up for human rights in the morning and then defending trade deals with countries that commit genocide in the afternoon.
“Will he please get a grip on that across Government, because who in the world could rely on a Government who cannot even rely on themselves?”
Mr Raab immediately rebuked this: “I think she is a bit confused. Can she name a single country with whom this country is engaged with FTA negotiations that have committed anything close to genocide?
“Of course not. It’s unthinkable. Of course we wouldn’t do it.”
During the heated Commons appearance this week, Mr Raab and the Tories were also accused of having “blood on their hands” over its foreign aid cuts.
The SNP’s Hannah Bardell said: “It’s utterly shameful. How does he and his Tory Government sleep at night knowing that they have the blood on their hands of some of the poorest people in the world?”
Mr Raab hit back at the “pretty unsavoury” language and defended its aid spending.
He replied: “I think that was pretty unsavoury. We sleep at night because we’re the third biggest ODA (Official Development Assistance) contributor in the G7.”
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