High Representative Karwan Jamal Tahir, attends Labour Party Conference in Liverpool

News : 9/26/2024

Liverpool, United Kingdom, www.uk.gov.krd. KRG High Representative to the UK Karwan Jamal Tahir and the team from Representation attended this year’s Labour Party Conference in Liverpool—the first Labour Conference in 15 years in which they have been the party in government.

High Representative Tahir met several ministers, MPs, and peers on the margin to discuss bilateral issues and ways to deepen the relationship between KRI and the UK, as well as attending many of the fringe events, including with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Middle East Stae Minister and the Minister for the Armed Forces throughout the week and Heads of Mission diplomatic networking events.
KRI Representation in the UK was also pleased to host its usual annual reception on the final evening of the conference, which was attended by several MPs, councillors, and Labour members.

The guest speakers at the Kurdistan Region and Labour Party friendship reception included Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark MP, MP for Rugby, John Slinger, and Bambos Charalambous MP.
High Representative Karwan Tahir led the opening remarks, in which he warmly congratulated the newly formed government, and the MPs present on their election victories and looked forward to working with our colleagues in the new UK government to further strengthen the bilateral ties between KRI and the UK.

Mr Tahir also made comments regarding British archaeological expertise and his recent visit to Shanidar Z, the 75,000-year-old neanderthal remains discovered by Cambridge University and Liverpool John Moores University, with the hopes that the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will take advantage of shared development projects such as the Shanidar Cave site to strengthen relations.
Minister Feryal Clark focussed her comments on the importance of UK parliamentary support for Kurdistan Region and in particular the All Party Parliamentary Group for Kurdistan Region which has been re-established in the new parliament with a new Chairman, Mr John Slinger MP. Ms Clark also emphasized the contribution of the Kurdish diaspora in the UK in many sectors, as well as in politics.

Bambos Charalambous MP stressed both that ‘as true friends of the Kurdistan Region we need to make sure that we don’t forget the support that they need’. He made special mention of the importance of the friendship between KRI-UK and impact of the Kurdish diaspora, and also the plight of Yazidis who still need support in the region and continued UK support is vital while the Yazidis seek justice for the crimes committed against them by ISIS.

John Slinger MP, newly elected MP and now the new Chairman of the APPG on Kurdistan Region of Iraq, talked of his privilege to have been a visitor to Kurdistan Region on several occasions and how pleased he was that the APPG had been re-established and looks forward to organising the first parliamentary delegation to Kurdistan Region for sometime, at the earliest opportunity.  Mr Slinger also paid tribute to the out-going and long-serving Secretary of the APPG, Gary Kent, who has done tremendous work for the APPG and in fostering the relationship between KRI-UK through parliament.

Liverpool
22nd to 25th September 2024