Middle East: Deployment of British Armed Forces
Debate between Lord Hannan of Kingsclere and Earl of Minto(7 months, 1 week ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, that is something for the parliamentary scheduling people. A major debate at this point would be very useful but may take up far too much parliamentary time.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister take this opportunity to thank and congratulate the RAF pilots who prevented needless loss of life in Israel over the weekend? Will he take the opportunity to reaffirm our country’s long-standing relationship with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan—a relationship that goes back more than 100 years —which was brave and correct in defending its own territorial integrity over the weekend? That is exactly the kind of relationship that should in general be assumed, without needing to come back to Parliament for preauthorisation every time we stand by our old allies.
The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, I entirely agree with my noble friend. I also place on the record my admiration, and that of the Government, for all our Armed Forces in what must be an extremely difficult situation. Operation Shader, which has been in place since 2014, has been a remarkable success, and very active. I did not realise that since it was put in place, the RAF has flown 8,700 sorties and released 4,300 precision weapons.
Iran: Military Power
Debate between Lord Hannan of Kingsclere and Earl of Minto(9 months, 1 week ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, this is an extremely good point. We can go only so far with sanctions, due to all the reasons that your Lordships are fully aware of and the fact that Iran has its allies, which are not remotely interested in stopping—and in fact are encouraging—its proliferation. We sanctioned the IRGC in its entirety. We have sanctioned more than 400 Iranian individuals and organisations to do with weapons proliferation, regional conflicts, human rights violations, and terrorism. Since October 2022, we have sanctioned a further 56 IRGC-related organisations and officials. So we are taking as much action as we can.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, the point of the question of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, is that sanctions may not be working. Iran has been subject, on and off, to quite stringent sanctions for some 40 years—yet it has developed state-of-the-art drones that are now being used in Ukraine. What would my noble friend the Minister see as turning up a notch beyond economic sanctions and looking at ways of effectively deterring the ayatollahs?
The Earl of Minto (Con)
I thank my noble friend for that question. The key is to keep diplomatic channels open—it has to be. That is the only way this will be resolved in the long term. On drone technology, we introduced a new set of sanctions in December, and last month all components and everything to do with drone technology were included in these stringent sanctions.
British Steel
Debate between Lord Hannan of Kingsclere and Earl of Minto(1 year ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, I do not think I said that we are throwing employees into a wide market. In fact, I think I said that we would provide support to see them through the transition. We have a fair and open market for Chinese investment in this country. It is a major world trading relationship and, while I understand some of the political issues behind it, just to avoid a country of that weight is slightly isolationist.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend the Minister confirm that the industries that use steel employ many more people than the industries that make steel? We have 34,000 steelworkers and 176,000 people making cars. We have the better part of 0.5 million working in agriculture and 2 million working in construction. The way to protect jobs is to bring the price of steel down, not raise it. Will my noble friend confirm that our Trade Remedies Authority found no case whatever for the tariffs that we have inherited from the EU and continue to maintain on imported steel? Will he make clear that the way to make this country competitive is to remove excess costs on energy so that our industry can compete? By the way, we are still our own biggest supplier by far, and no foreign country accounts for more than 14% of our imports.
The Earl of Minto (Con)
That was a very detailed question indeed, with which I entirely agree.
Baby-changing Facilities
Debate between Lord Hannan of Kingsclere and Earl of Minto(1 year, 5 months ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
Although that is not entirely within my brief, I entirely agree.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (Con)
My Lords, I wonder whether the Normandy landings would have been so successful had they all been obliged to have baby-changing facilities on every vessel. This idea of state regulation for baby changing takes the nanny state to a literal level. Can my noble friend the Minister confirm that, in the other place, the Government were elected on a manifesto promising minimal regulation, and that providers of services have every incentive to offer their customers the best deal they can afford without needing to be told what to do with the full coercive power of state law?
The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, I entirely agree. In fact, my role is about regulation and reducing the amount of it. We should all agree that, by reducing regulation, business becomes easier and more productive, everybody’s salaries improve and there are increased job opportunities.