Counter-ISIL Coalition Strategy

Conor McGinn Excerpts

Monday 20th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Michael Fallon]

No, not on the latter point. As I have said, we continue to have personnel embedded with American and Canadian forces. They are engaged in action that is legal and necessary. It is action that I welcome and that I would hope the House welcomed to help defeat ISIL. So far as any further vote in the House is concerned, no, we do not have a specific timetable.

[Conor McGinn (St Helens North) (Lab)]

As my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) said, the serious issue here is the fact that the Government have given permission for UK armed forces personnel to be involved in air strikes in Syria, despite giving first the impression and then the assurance that they would come to the House before they did any such thing. The Secretary of State has not recognised that. How can the Government expect to build the confidence of hon. Members, never mind the British public, to embark on further military action in Syria when they behave in that manner?

[Michael Fallon]

I have described to the House the long-standing practice as regards embedded personnel. I have described exactly what information is released about that embedding, the fact that we do not publicise the embedding because these are operations of other countries, and the fact that personnel are deployed on them with my agreement. But it is also our policy, whenever we are asked about these operations, to give full answers about them. That is what we have done and what we did last week in response to a freedom of information request.