Mr. Peter Hain (Neath) (Lab): With opposition voters in Zimbabwe being murdered, beaten and starved, with independent monitors being abducted and terrorised, with the head of the pan-African observers saying that there is no way that next week's election will be free and fair, with Mugabe declaring war on anyone who dares to vote against him, is it not time that the international community-including my old anti-apartheid friends in Pretoria-demanded that this election be called off, that the results of the first free and fair round be recognised, that the winner, Morgan Tsvangirai, be declared President of a Government of national unity, and that Mugabe be forced to recognise at last that the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe want him to go and want him to go now?

The Prime Minister: I have great respect for the views of my right hon. Friend, who has been involved in the politics of southern Africa for many years and has done great things.

There have been 53 confirmed deaths, some 2,000 people have been injured and 30,000 people displaced during this campaign. Four million people are in need of food aid, but are being denied it by the regime. The deputy leader of the MDC, Tendai Biti, is in police custody. Those are not circumstances in which a free and fair election can take place.

We have asked the regime to allow in observers for the 9,400 polling stations. Hundreds of observers have gone in, and more are to go in. We demand that those observers come from not just Africa, but different parts of the world. We also demand that the UN human rights envoy be admitted into Zimbabwe and that proper monitoring of the elections takes place. If that does not happen, it will be difficult to justify the elections as free and fair.

[CUT]

Q3. [211608] Mr. Hugo Swire (East Devon) (Con): While the situation in Zimbabwe is tragically worsening by the hour, the United Nations Security Council remains paralysed by China and by Russia. Will the Prime Minister now show some leadership by summoning the Chinese ambassador, reminding her that the eyes of the world are on China and Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics, and that the Chinese Government should cease immediately financially shoring up what the Prime Minister has rightly described as Mugabe's "criminal regime"?

The Prime Minister: It is right that it is a criminal regime run by a criminal cabal, and we must make that clear to the rest of the world, but the hon. Gentleman is wrong to say that the UN Secretary-General has not been taking action. He has met President Mugabe and made it clear that he wants a human rights envoy into the country. Arrangements are being made for that human rights envoy to go into the country, and the United Nations Secretary-General has made it clear that his eyes are on a free and fair election. He is supporting the number of monitors who will come from outside Africa for that election, and that is what we support, as well.

Q4. [211609] Mr. David Winnick (Walsall, North) (Lab): On the same point, and bearing in mind the views expressed by our right hon. Friend the Member for Neath (Mr. Hain) and the fact that so many of us in the '60s constantly denounced the Smith regime, is the Prime Minister aware that there is great disappointment that South Africa has not taken a stronger stand against the murderous violence that goes on day after day in Zimbabwe, and which makes a total mockery of the election that is taking place? Would it be possible for my right hon. Friend to make it clear to our good friends in South Africa that we expect a much different response?

The Prime Minister: I have not only kept in touch with the President, Thabo Mbeki. I was also in touch on Sunday with the president-elect-that is, the president of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma. I made it clear to him, and he supported the idea, that there would be 1,000 monitors from the ANC party offered to Zimbabwe, so that they, too, can play their part in the election. So it is not strictly the case that South Africa is not making available election observers or monitors; that is exactly what they are doing.

I have also talked in the last week with President Kikwete, the chairman of the African Union, and with President Museveni of Uganda. They, too, and all the surrounding African states, are acknowledging the problems that are being created by Mugabe, the need to have free and fair elections, the need to put pressure on the regime for that to happen, and the need for international monitors to be in Zimbabwe, as I said in reply to the first question only a few minutes ago. These are the conditions under which, and the only conditions under which, a free and fair election can take place.

These are extracts from the official transcript of Prime Minister's question time, United Kingdom, June 18 2008