Counter-Daesh Update Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for International Development
Alistair Burt
Main Page: Alistair Burt (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)Department Debates - View all Alistair Burt's debates with the Department for International Development
(6 years, 1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)
The Secretary of State mentions the suffering of the Syrian people; does she agree with the constituents who came to see me at my surgery last Friday that that suffering has been compounded by the British Government’s shameful timidity regarding Turkish aggression in northern Syria?
The Minister for the Middle East (Alistair Burt)
Perhaps the vote in 2013 had something to do with it.
Penny Mordaunt
Yes; my right hon. Friend points to the answer. I think hon. Members on both sides of the Chamber regret that we took military action off the table in the vote in 2013. It was not a vote on taking military action; indeed, there was an undertaking that if military action was sought, the Government would come back to the House and ask it to vote on that. What we did that day was remove the option for this country to take military action. That is a lesson that sometimes inaction is not the right answer.