Westminster Hall
14 October 2026
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Westminster Hall House of Commons
Follow its sittings00:22 - 00:29
Speaker 1
Order, order. Matt Rodda to move the motion.
00:29 - 01:11
Speaker 3
Thank you, Ms McVey, and it's a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I beg to move the motion that this House has considered Government support for the situation in Nepal. I'm grateful for the opportunity for today's debate and to discuss the Government's response to the recent terrible floods in Nepal. And I hope that the debate will be an important opportunity to demonstrate the strong links between Britain and Nepal and to understand more about the response to these dreadful floods. I also want to ask the Minister for an update on the response and on Britain's continuing support for the longer-term reconstruction of the affected area and for the development of Nepal more broadly.
01:11 - 07:30
Speaker 2
I would like to start, however, by echoing the PM's words on Nepal and on the disaster. It is quite clear, Ms McVey, that Nepal has always been there for Britain, now Britain needs to be there for Nepal. And as everybody here will remember, we have a very strong and indeed some would say special relationship with Nepal which goes back over 200 years. The Gurkhas have served in the British Army throughout the 19th century, in World War I, World War II, in numerous other conflicts since the two world wars, including Malaysia, Brunei, the Falklands and Afghanistan. More recently, Gurkha soldiers were deployed to deal with a civil emergency in South Wales where they helped tackle very serious wildfires this summer.
I do also want to acknowledge and celebrate the very significant civil contribution of the British Nepalese community, most notably in my own community and others around the country, where a number of British Nepalese residents work in the NHS, work in our local transport system, work in small businesses, in IT and in many, many other walks of life. And there is enormous pride in that connection in Reading and across the country in the areas where there are significant Gurkha communities and Nepalese communities. And there's also a great deal of support and concern about the situation in Nepal. So with that, with those points, I would like to now turn to the floods themselves. And first of all, Ms McVey, I would like to offer my deepest condolences to all those who were affected, both the families who lost loved ones and those whose loved ones are still missing.
This was a truly awful disaster which affected thousands and thousands of people. I understand the latest estimates are that around 1,400 people lost their lives and that 5,000 are still missing. The images are very difficult to describe. As one of my colleagues on Reading Borough Council, Pratiksha Gurung, who's a local councillor who's from Nepal originally, said to me at the time, it was so awful that people could simply not watch the news. They couldn't watch their televisions because of the horrors that were unfolding.
And we can all remember some of the images ourselves. And I would just like to say that our hearts go out to all of those who were involved, both families who lost loved ones and families whose loved ones are still missing. Ms McVey, the floods have left grieving families, orphans, and lost family members. And sadly, there were several families in my own community in Reading, both in my constituency and in neighbouring constituencies, where families lost loved ones. There's also been a terrible effect on the very large British Nepalese community in Aldershot.
And I would like to offer my condolences to all the communities around the country. And I understand many of my colleagues will want to speak about their own communities or just offer their support more generally. And I would like to pay tribute to the work of members from other seats, including my colleagues from the two Reading seats, from Aldershot, Bracknell, Basingstoke, Oxford, West London, and many others. Many weren't able to attend today but wanted to offer their support. Could I, Ms McVey, also thank the Nepalese armed forces, emergency services, emergency workers, medical staff, and many others who led the rescue operation in August and early September, and also their international colleagues, including British personnel.
They serve with distinction, and many of them are continuing to serve now in the difficult aftermath of the disaster. And I should say I'm also very proud of the links between Britain and Nepal and the support offered by the British government, by charities in Britain, and by local communities. And I'm looking forward to the minister updating the House later on much of this. I would like to particularly pay tribute to the help offered by our armed services and by the Foreign Office in the immediate aftermath. And I understand from briefings I've had with ministers that there was incredibly close working between British and Nepalese forces at the time and that a range of technical help as well as financial support was offered to deal with some very specific issues.
The FCDO as is well known offered a five million pound fund for immediate support, and they also increased consular assistance, bringing in extra staff into the embassy in Kathmandu. I would like to thank the government for this prompt response and for the continuing support Britain is offering to Nepal as the second biggest bilateral donor to the country. And I'd also like to mention and thank ministers for their support in Parliament to myself and other members of the Nepal APPG. Minister Doughty and Minister Winterton provided vital assistance with casework and with briefings on the fast-moving situation. Ms McVey, I would like to turn now to the work provided by and the support provided by charities.
DEC has provided played an important role, and I'm pleased to see the continuing work it is undertaking in Nepal. I also would like to mention UNICEF, which provided some briefing to me and some support, and the work of the United Nations in this important in this important situation. And more locally, I would like to pay tribute to the community groups, including the Greater Reading Nepalese Community Association and others around the country who provided such heartfelt and important support. I would like to mention a number of local residents in particular: Bhimsen Khadka, who's the chair of the association in Reading; Dev Gurung and his wife Aruna Gurung; Chandra Bahadur Gurung, who's the head of the Forgotten British Gurkha charity, which provides important support to retired Gurkhas in our area; and Pratiksha and Deepak Gurung, Pratiksha's a local councillor; Ram Galani, who's another worker with retired servicemen who works to support service personnel; and also Bipin Duwadi, the chargé d'affaires at the Nepalese embassy, who's been extremely helpful in providing briefing and encouraging ongoing links between Britain and Nepal and those of us who have Nepalese communities.