Sri Harmandir Sahib

Debate between Lord Hague of Richmond and Virendra Sharma

Tuesday 4th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I do not want to dispute the word of the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh). Perhaps he was just having a therapeutic stretch.

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

As a Punjabi, having been born and brought up there and having studied in institutions run by the Sikh community back in Punjab, I fully understand the feelings and sentiments that exist. As my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) asked, will the Foreign Secretary commit to investigating further the points that he raised in his statement?

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Gentleman understands well that the statement and the Cabinet Secretary’s report are about specific events. There are many other aspects of relations between the UK and India—many positive ones, and sometimes controversial ones. Whenever there is something that we feel should be investigated we must be prepared to do so, but I have not seen, and the Cabinet Secretary has not turned up in producing the report, other circumstantial evidence that we think requires such investigation. Of course, we do not know what evidence will ever be turned up in future, so we cannot rule out all investigations for the future.