In an impassioned Westminster Hall debate, Martin Docherty-Hughes MP (SNP, West Dunbartonshire) spotlighted the ordeals of UK citizens imprisoned overseas.
He underscored the case of his constituent, Jagtar Singh Johal.
Docherty-Hughes began, “This is not the first time that I have risen to my feet in Westminster Hall to speak on this very subject.” He continued, describing the unexpected aspects of his role: “There are many parts of the job… dealing with constituents who are themselves in some sort of distress… is certainly one of those things that we cannot prepare ourselves for before being elected.”
The MP expressed concerns over the glaring gap between the support services families expect and the reality of what’s provided. Referring to the British passport inscription, he noted: “His Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires… to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.” He then argued, “prisoners… are the very definition of vulnerable people at the mercy of the state.”
Docherty-Hughes delved into the troubling case of Jagtar Singh Johal, detailing, “The circumstances of Jagtar’s arrest—being snatched off the street by unidentified men, held incommunicado, and then signing a confession… meant that the case got attention.” He cited the subsequent emergence of the “Free Jaggi Now” campaign as a beacon of hope.
Although acknowledging the consular prisons team’s commendable efforts, Docherty-Hughes lamented their lack of resources. He cited: “the de-prioritisation of consular budgets,” and pointed to the insights from the all-party parliamentary group on deaths abroad, consular services, and assistance. This report, he said, is “full of excellent recommendations to ensure that the importance of consular services is recognised.”
Closing his address, Docherty-Hughes was resolute in his call for change: “This Government… need to do much more to ensure that holders of that document receive ‘such assistance and protection as may be necessary.’”
Watch the debate in full here.
He is right. When a British passport holder is abroad it’s the governments duty to do everything they can to ensure they are held safety and have the legal support required to ensure a free and fair trial.
If that can’t be guaranteed all attempts to get them back to the U.K. to face the charges should happen.
Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law is a foundation of democracy and must be applied in all cases.
I’m just confused. We have the highest tax rate since the second World War and yet I can’t name a single public service that isn’t cash stretched. Where is the money going. OK covid and truss hit the coffers hard but that went onto the national debt rather than directly from tax money, OK that means higher interest but equally high inflation deflates that. Would love to understand where the money has gone.
It’s proven in court rather billions has gone to Torry donors for no return, but still the tax revenue of the UK is over £400b, a few billion defrauded is a splash, shouldn’t be allowed but still a splash.
That’s just for plebs like us. What has happened since Reagan & Thatcher is the top 1% filthy rich went from 70-80% tax to virtually nothing. So huge amounts of wealth went off shore & away from nations exchenquers. That’s why we pay more tax than ever but get less for it & society is crumbling around our ears. That & the relaitvely rich tending to withdraw from society into their own ghettos, private education, healthcare etc, so those that had clout & resources no longer worked to imporove public services, education, health care. They don’t mind & we don’t… Read more »
That is certainly the Oxfam narrative. The reality is very different, Cameron brought in CRS and the US introduced FATCA over 10 years ago. There is no such thing has hiding money offshore anymore. Just ask Bernie Ecclestone how that’s working out. Most of the “data” Oxfam uses in the UK on the 1% includes foreign non doms in London who make it look like there is a UK 1% when infant it’s not it’s a global one. The UK is actually one of the biggest offshore jurisdictions in this regard but the country benefits from net capital inflows and… Read more »
The top 1% pay over 30% of the total UK tax income.
UK GDP has not recovered from the Great Financial Crisis. Meanwhile, regular annual inflation continued to accrue. This means every year, prices go up, while the nation’s revenue more or less stayed unchanged. On top of that came Covid19, which an LSE professor estimated cost the nation as much as a decent-sized war would have. That’s what these Extinction twats don’t understand. We are struggling to tread water as is, never mind shell out for expensive climate management programmes. Yes, they are better for the environment, but they also cost more than the “dirty” way. This is obvious to anyone… Read more »
Indeed the UK has never recovered from the last financial crisis, or the one before that, or WW2 debt or in fact from the fact that we can no longer milk an empire for food and cheap labour. Indeed Liz Truss’ global trade deals and the upcoming trade deal with India are rooted in that imperial memory. India will feed us and we will import lots of Indian software engineers and doctors – they being more industrious and talented than our own young people – apparently. We lurch Dunkirk style from crisis to crises so we can prove to ourselves… Read more »
“Indian software engineers – they being more industrious and talented than our own”
Nope!
They being easier to exploit in a toxic management system.
Note: taking 10h offshore to do what’s done in 7h onshore is not ‘more industrious’ rather less productive.
Preaching to the converted mate. Have to ask whether Sunak was facilitated into the job so that the UK Tory wealth owning classes could become part of de upcoming greater Indian family. This whole thing is redolent of 1930s Germany where the monied establishment manoeuvred their patsy into power.
GDP isn’t a god, it is merely a measurement. Even if you were to switch to other forms of economic activity, you would still use GDP – no matter by what name – to measure it.
If we were to legalise prostitution and drugs GDP would increase. Would we pat ourselves on the back?
Not necessarily. Prostitution may not be a significant industry and drugs brings social ills which can cost more to fix than it earns – healthcare costs, crime impact, etc. I won’t go into specifics because I cannot predict the future – otherwise I would beat Warren Buffett – but the end of the day one has to look at what the UK really sells to the world, and whether it is enough to support UK Govt spending. @Jim by the way is being conservative. The UK spends more on the NHS per capita and proportionate to its revenue than the… Read more »
You can see where I am going with this. What is happening in the UK is that, GDP growth has been assumed to be a good thing without any assessment of its holistic affect on society. The negative impacts are typically delayed often deliberately by the organisations; business and the exchequer which are benefitting from what has become an status quo. Smoking, drinking and fast food are examples where we are now understanding that the ongoing welfare cost is or will be greater than the benefits. So we are always playing catchup. We never get on top of the problems:… Read more »
Actually, for the last 13 years GDP growth has not been prioritised at all. There has, rather, been a lot of talk about social impact, climate impact, ethical impact, but nobody has been looking at the bottom line.
It’s really very simple: Do you own a car? If yes, is it an environmentally-friendly electric drive? Why not? Do you use any single-use disposable items? Why? Have you replaced all the contents of your home with sustainable, green, ethically-sourced fairtrade substitutes? Why not?
The answer for nations is the same as for individuals.
GDP not prioritized at all. You could have fooled me. The received Tory electoral message is that growth is the pre-requisite for low borrowing, a stable currency and the bigger tax revenues needed for the nice public spending things we all want. Even Rachel Reeves ‘doesn’t see a borrowing route’ out of our problems and we are going to have to have a growth strategy….a proper one that doesn’t assume it will all healthily happen if you slash taxes. As I understand it the labour plan ( based around house building and investment in ‘green’ technologies ) is respectable and… Read more »
Baby boomers, The NHS has gone from consuming 4% of GDP in the 80’s to over 10% today. The basic state pension has risen at a rate far outstripping inflation, earnings or economic growth and there are more people claiming it than at any time before. The tax take has actually stayed pretty flat as a % of GDP around 38% which is one of the lowest in the OECD and low earners pay less tax than at anytime in before. Most of this has been paid for since the 80’s by gutting the defence budget and moving women’s retirement… Read more »
Your comparing to the 80s, I’m comparing to what I have seen in the last decade, its quiet noticeable. Think how major a cut the sdsr 2010 was (OK 13 years). The economy hasn’t fully recovered from covid but it is now higher and on top of that inflation brings more corporate profits and higher wages both of which result in more tax revenue. Just Google a graph of the revenue per year and its a pretty steep climbing graph. The NHS and state pension see certainly costing more, but I doubt by they have suddenly jumped that significantly in… Read more »
Not HMG job to ensure they have legal support. If they have no money then they only have the rights of locals, there is no separate justice track overseas for British citizens.
The innocent until proven guilty is a legal formula for judges and juries only to have a trial etc
Doesnt apply for media or social media
I’m unsure of the specifics of this case but just for some other perspective, the US recently had a prisoner swap with Russia where we got back a basketball player who had some medically prescribed marijuana vape cartridges in her luggage. In exchange, Russia got infamous arms dealer Victor Bout, “The Merchant Of Death”. I mean, this is as uneven of a swap as you can have so that should be a warning to any civilian of the west: stay the hell out of Russia they could use you for big things. Innocent until proven guilty in a court .… Read more »
And if I recall the US let go an opportunity to repatriate a much more deserving case; in my opinion.
I’m not sure how the negotiations over Paul Whelan broke down but they did. I agree that espionage allegations are more on the level of arms dealing than vape cartridges though. The case of Harry Dunn is the one we should all hang our head in shame from on this side of the Atlantic. I think there should have been some punishment no matter who she was and even if it was here in a white-collar prison.
Anne Sarcoolas must have been mortified by what she had done. And frightened of facing the consequences. In the end she did face the English justice system and it worked well – a custodial sentence for a death is appropriate. There are cases here too where extenuating circumstances lead to a sentence being suspended, though the accused might already have spent some time behind bars waiting for trial. She was a lucky lady. She was fortunate that the grieving family were so gracious. Anyway, it’s all done now.
This is a very interesting story, but not in the way most people think. You see Jagtar Singh Johal is an anti-Indian activist and is the mind behind the anti-Indian group ‘Never Forget 1984’ in the UK” which is all about the inter-religious riots which took place across India in Oct 1984 between Hindu and Sikhs (resulting between 5 to 8 thousand deaths in 1984) after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, it also saw Air India Flight 182 blown up just off Ireland on route to Canada by Sikh extremists. Gandi was killed due to how she dealt… Read more »
So regards that campaign which like we see time and time again when somebody travels to the country they openly berate (be it the 5 British Muslim lads in Yemen in 1999 caught red handed planning a terrorist kitted out with rocket-propelled grenades, TNT explosives, anti-tank rockets, mines, laptops and communications equipment. But good old Tony bent over backwards to get them freed, including the son (Mustapha Kamel) and step-son (Mohsin Ghalain) of a certain Abu Hamza after they played the we are British and the government won’t defend us because we are Muslims card. How about Zaghari-Ratcliffe who travelled… Read more »
Oh and just to make it clear. My only loyalty is to the Uk and on my dog tags (just checked) it states at the top B Pos followed by my full service number, followed by my surname, followed by my initial (F) followed by CE. I don’t give a toss for any country east of Dover.
Boom and yet again Farouk gives a decent dose of truth, knowledge and research! 👍
Bravo. As always, Farouk says it how it is and I predict yawning silence from the usual suspects.
Me thinks this is the reason why the British government is saying little and the SNO are screaming loudly. There are over 5 million “British” citizens living around the world outside the UK, many are in fact not British citizens. Easy way to sort it out is to ban people from having more than 1 passport. The USA and most European countries do this. That way next time some third world capital falls over we don’t have 4000 “British” citizens showing up at the embassy gates at the last minute putting diplomatic and service personnel at risk. People need to… Read more »
I suggest you go check your facts the US allows its citizens to have more then one passport, pretty much every country in Western Europe allows dual citizenship including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands, granted some with restrictions.