Tony Lloyd MP supports schoolchildren and activists petitioning for peace in Yemen

Tony Lloyd MP supports acitivists calling for peace in Yemen

Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd joined more than 60 activists, including 24 schoolchildren, to support the hand-in of a peace petition to the Foreign Office at Westminster on Tuesday 19 March.

The activists want the UK government to hear them standing up for the children of Yemen and turn political promises into practical change at the UN Security Council.

Mr Lloyd joined British children and campaigners to show solidarity with the children of Yemen.

More than 20 British schoolchildren aged between 11-13 years of age from Beverley High School in Yorkshire and Ousedale School in Buckinghamshire have been working with Save the Children campaigning and fundraising for children in Yemen.

They came together with activists from across the country to form a group of 60, staging a stunt in Victoria Tower Gardens that included an installation of a large pen containing thousands of regular-sized pens, to illustrate the petition signatures.

The children also used the pens to spell out ‘words not weapons’ on a board outside parliament. Following the stunt installation, the school children and campaigners walked to the Foreign Office in Westminster with a giant pen to present the printed names of the 58,000 signatories.

Mr Lloyd said: "The present phase of the conflict in Yemen has run for four years now. This has taken many lives and has quite literally devastated the way of life for ten of thousands of people, leaving them in the midst of the world’s biggest preventable humanitarian crisis.

"Outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and diphtheria have been common place. The overwhelming majority of victims are non-combatants, including women and children. Many aspects of the military’s actions are inhumane and the blockade of basic aid is simply cruel.

"The UK is the ‘pen holder’ of the United Nations, in other words, our country has the responsibility of driving forward international policy. The international community has been too slow and too silent and the military action is solving nothing. The people of Yemen urgently need a ceasefire and help with reconstruction.

"That’s why I am supporting the Save the Children petition."

Recent reports of increased fighting in Yemen – already the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world – have cast doubt on the future of the Stockholm peace process which began in December last year.

Save the Children is calling on the UK to put children front and centre of its foreign, defence and aid policies, calling out allies when they commit atrocities against children, and implementing a clear strategy to protect children and their families caught up in conflict.