UK to spend £140m on aid to Yemen to help ‘most desperate people in the world’, deputy foreign secretary says
The UK will spend £140m next year helping starving people in Yemen who are suffering one of the most “acute humanitarian crises in the world”, the deputy foreign secretary has said.
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Andrew Mitchell raised the plight of the Yemeni people, whom he said were living “on the margins of subsistence” following nearly a decade of civil war.
Mr Mitchell promised that the UK’s bilateral support for Yemen would increase by 60% and that any money provided would be designed “directly to help people who are in a very perilous humanitarian position”.
“It is Britain doing good, going to the rescue of the most desperate people in the world and helping them,” he said.
The deputy foreign secretary’s intervention comes following months of reporting from Yemen from Sky News’ special correspondent Alex Crawford, who has detailed how the war in Gaza has had an adverse impact on the Yemeni people.
Yemen’s Houthi militants, backed by Iran, have targeted ships in the Red Sea region which they claim are linked to Israel or helping its war effort.
The repeated missile and drone attacks by the Houthis since November have forced international cargo ships to be re-routed and take longer, more costly journeys around the Cape of Good Hope that has pushed up the price of goods in Yemen – already one of the poorest countries in the world.
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The Houthi actions are wreaking havoc on global shipping routes but has seen them surge in popularity at home.
However, the Houthis’ actions, while condemned by the West, have prompted demonstrations of support in the streets of Yemen, where solidarity is expressed with Palestinians in Gaza.
Mr Mitchell said 70% of the food that gets into Yemen goes through ports used by international shipping and was therefore being put at risk by the Houthis’ actions.
“It is often impeded in getting there by what the Houthis are doing in disrupting the flow of international shipping,” he explained.
“So that is very bad – and, an example of the terrible effect of the Houthis are having on their own people as well as on the wider international community.”
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Asked what the international community was doing to bring about peace in Yemen, Mr Mitchell replied: “Well, Britain holds the pen, in the jargon of the trade, at the United Nations. So we lead on Yemen.
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Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford and her team report from Yemen.
“And, recently we’ve been trying to make sure that the negotiations, which the UN special representative has been involved in, are successful.
“There’s a very different situation now from what there was a couple of years ago with the Saudis. And there is a peace process that is there for the taking.
“We urge all the different parties who are involved in Yemen to get involved in that peace process, to bring an end to a terrible situation, which, above all, millions of ordinary people in Yemen are suffering from.”
A former Labour frontbencher has urged the government to condemn Donald Trump’s “barbaric” plan for a US takeover of Gaza as “ethnic cleansing”, in a move that risks reigniting internal party splits over the Middle East conflict.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, a former shadow mental health minister who ran to be deputy leader, said the government needed to express “in no uncertain terms” its disapproval of the suggestion that Gazans be resettled into neighbouring countries.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, seen by Sky News, the Labour MP for Tooting said the US president’s comments risked sounding the “final death knell” for the internationally-supported two-state solution, in which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside the state of Israel.
“I would like to express my outrage and ask that you take urgent steps to prevent this, including voicing the government’s disapproval in no uncertain terms,” she wrote.
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“This is not a humanitarian gesture of compassion – it is the forced removal of a population and a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza,” she added.
Dr Allin-Khan, who was one of the 56 Labour MPs to break ranks and vote for a controversial SNP ceasefire motion last year, cited definitions of ethnic cleansing by the United Nations and the European Union as “using force or intimidation to remove from a given area, persons of another ethnic or religious group”.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan was one of 56 Labour MPs who voted for a ceasefire in Gaza
“The world intervened in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and roundly condemned ethnic cleansing in Rwanda,” she added. “We must meet these plans to remove millions of Palestinians from their homes, naked as they are, with the same robust response.”
She asked: “Will the government stand firm and condemn President Trump’s stated aim to take over and forcibly remove the Palestinian population of Gaza?
“Further to this, can you confirm that there will be no UK support or involvement in this disgraceful plan? Finally, will you work with the international community to support UN resolutions opposing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza?”
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Two states is ‘only’ solution
Mr Trump sparked international alarm overnight when he laid out his plans for the Middle East in a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The US president called Gaza a “demolition site” and said the two million people who currently live there could go to “various domains”.
He did not rule out sending US troops to the region, and said the US would “develop” Gaza and create “thousands and thousands of jobs”.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs,” Mr Trump said, adding that Gaza could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” where “the world’s people” could live.
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Trump: ‘We’ll own Gaza’
Mr Trump suggested that Palestinians could be relocated to Egypt and Jordan. Both countries, other Arab nations and Palestinian leaders have all opposed this move.
The US president’s comments come at an awkward time for Sir Keir Starmer, as he seeks to build a close relationship with the US and stop the UK being subject to the punitive tariffs that have been imposed on China, Mexico and Canada – although the latter two countries have since earned a 30-day reprieve as negotiations take place.
The UK government has sought to distance itself from Mr Trump’s remarks, with Mr Lammy saying the UK has “always been clear in our belief that we must see two states”.
“We must see Palestinians live and prosper in their homelands in Gaza and the West Bank,” he added.
And speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley this morning, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said the UK’s position was that Palestinians “need to be able to return to their homes and then start to rebuild them”.
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However, he stopped short of criticising Mr Trump for his remarks, saying that he would “not provide a running commentary on the pronouncements of the president”.
Asked if he was being disparaging, Mr Reed replied “not at all” and argued that Mr Trump should be given “credit for the role he played in securing the ceasefire in the first place”.
The ceasefire between Israel and Gaza was agreed last month after more than a year of war following Hamas’s terrorist attack on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and saw 250 others taken hostage.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack, according to local authorities.
UN officials have estimated that around 200,000 Palestinians have made the journey to the north of the Gaza Strip after Israel lifted its closure of the area following the ceasefire deal.
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