Labour MP challenges medical evacuations of Gazan children
International Development Committee chair Sarah Champion warns 'costs, trauma & unintended consequences present huge risks'
An influential Labour MP has questioned the Foreign Office’s continued efforts to bring seriously ill Gazan children to the UK for specialist medical care.
Sarah Champion, who chairs the International Development Select Committee, responded to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement confirming that more critically ill children will be brought to Britain for treatment.
Posting on X, Champion said: “I disagree with bringing sick Gaza children to the UK.”
She added: “There’s excellent healthcare in Jordan & the Middle East. It’s shorter travel & same language. Of course, if there are gaps in specialist skills we should step up, but costs, trauma & unintended consequences present huge risks.”
Champion, a longstanding critic of the Israeli government and advocate for Palestinian rights, had earlier this week written to ministers arguing that the UK’s stance on international law regarding Israel is now “unsustainable.”
Last year, the government indicated that up to 300 seriously ill or injured children from Gaza would be brought to the UK for treatment. However, there has been criticism that only around 50 children have arrived so far.
Health Secretary James Murray welcomed Cooper’s announcement on Wednesday. “No one can fail to be distressed by the devastating impact the war has had on the children of Gaza. Every child deserves the chance to heal, to play, to simply be able to dream again,” he said.
“These young patients have witnessed horrors no child should ever see, but this marks the start of their journey towards recovery, and reflects the very best of our NHS values—compassion, care and expertise.”
A Channel 4 News report last week featured interviews with Palestinian boys who have already received NHS treatment in the UK after arriving from Gaza. One boy, treated for high blood pressure affecting his left kidney, appealed for his mother and siblings to be allowed to join him. “People assume when Gazans are leaving, they are happy, but the reality is the opposite,” he said.
The boy, together with others, had met Keir Starmer at Downing Street last year to request that more of his friends be offered treatment in the UK.
The Foreign Office has now confirmed “new evacuations of critically ill children, with immediate family members, in need of specialist medical support available in the UK, following a pause due to the regional conflict.”
It added: “The humanitarian situation remains dire in Gaza, with many people in urgent need of medical care. Most hospitals in Gaza are no longer fully functioning after nearly three years of war, and many key supplies remain scarce.”
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