Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Succinctness personified—I call Sir Desmond Swayne.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

T10. What personnel have been reassigned to recruitment?

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Mark Lancaster)]

There is a contingency plan, which we are looking at very closely, where we will be moving probably about 150 personnel to act as role models on the frontline for recruiting.

Counter-Daesh Update

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Thursday 13th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the tribute he has paid to our armed forces. It is worth reminding the House that the Scottish nationalists voted against military action in both Iraq and Syria. It is all very well to say that they now welcome the fact that Daesh has been defeated in Iraq, but how much longer would Daesh have continued to behead people, to shoot people and to throw gays off buildings without air power, including British air power, and without the involvement of 68 countries around the world, but not the support of the Scottish nationalists? He should reflect on that.

We work with Airwars when it has allegations and suspects that there might have been British aircraft in the air at the time in question. We look at that information and investigate it. So far we have not found any evidence of civilian casualties being caused by a British strike, but we continue to work with Airwars, and if it has fresh evidence it should put it to us and we will investigate it. As I indicated, we also carry out what is called a battle damage assessment after any strike to see exactly what effect it has had and whether there is any risk that there may have been casualties.

The hon. Gentleman is right to point to the increase in civilian casualties in the final weeks of the battle in west Mosul. It is a highly compact and densely populated city, and Daesh pushed civilians into buildings, held them hostage and shot them if they tried to escape. This was intense urban warfare of a type that we have not been involved in since probably the second world war—a very complex military operation. However, it would not have been easier if it had been extended and we had let it drift on for months. The job had to be done, and I pay tribute to those involved in it, including our pilots for their skill and precision alongside the rest of the coalition.

Finally, the hon. Gentleman asked about Syria, as he did on Monday. He has also written to me about it—I have in fact replied to him; I signed the letter yesterday, but he may not have had it yet. It certainly gives clarity on the point that he raised with me.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Is the expectation of sufficient reform in Iraq realistic?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

Yes, indeed. The Abadi Government are representative of all parts of Iraq. Abadi himself is a Shi’a; the President of Iraq, whom I met, is a Kurd; and my opposite number, the Defence Minister, is a Sunni. They are a genuinely representative Government, but they have work to do to provide reassurance, particularly to the Sunni populations and tribes of Nineveh and Anbar provinces in the west, that they too have a stake in modern Iraq and must feel part of it, and that they will be protected from any kind of Shi’a aggression such as they have suffered from in the past. The Government are representative and have lasted longer than some critics originally suggested they would, but they now have a huge amount of work to do to stabilise the areas that have been liberated and promote genuine political reconciliation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 10th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

We are one of the best trainers in the world, and our armed forces training is highly respected the world over. Other countries are constantly telling me that they want more places at Cranwell, Sandhurst and Dartmouth; they also want our armed forces to go out and train, as we are doing in Ukraine and Nigeria; and we have the largest apprenticeship programme in the country.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

12. What progress is being made on implementing the Dreadnought submarine programme.

[Mrs Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con)]

16. What progress there has been on the programme to build four Dreadnought submarines.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Harriett Baldwin)]

Thanks to the vote a year ago, the Dreadnought programme to replace the four Vanguard-class nuclear-armed submarines is on schedule. Construction on Dreadnought, the first of her class, commenced as planned in October 2016 at the BAE Systems yard in Barrow-in-Furness.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

Will the handover from Vanguard to Dreadnought be seamless?

[Harriett Baldwin]

Certainly if I and the 80% of people who took part in the vote a year ago have anything to do with it, it will be. I gently draw the House’s attention to the fact that both the shadow Defence Secretary and the Leader of the Opposition voted in the opposite Lobby on that day.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 13th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

I shall do my best, Mr Speaker. The campaign in Mosul is particularly complicated. West Mosul, in particular, is a very densely urban area—it is twice the density of east Mosul—so precision strikes in support of ground forces are all the more difficult for coalition aircraft, but as the campaign goes on, the use of precision air power and the training that the Iraqi forces have received make it more and more likely that they will, in the end, be successful, both in Iraq and, later on, in Syria.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

What can be done to ensure that liberated Sunni communities can be embraced by the political economy of Iraq?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need to stabilise these areas as quickly as possible—again, not simply by giving them access to essential services, but by encouraging a process of political reconciliation that ensures that in the Sunni areas, particularly in the Nineveh and Anbar provinces, the Sunnis feel that they have a sufficient stake in the future development of Iraq. I have made that point to the Prime Minister of Iraq and its President, and to the coalition commanders.

Yemen

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 19th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

First, I am not sure that the hon. Gentleman was listening, as the United States has not suspended arms sales to Saudi Arabia—he is incorrect about that. The US has suspended one sale of munitions, but it continues to sell munitions generally to Saudi Arabia, and to supply aircraft and attack helicopters. Secondly, there is no evidence that cluster munitions have been routinely used in Yemen—on the contrary, this allegation stood out for what it is. It has been thoroughly investigated and, as a result of that investigation and of our pressure, we now have an undertaking that Saudi Arabia will not use cluster munitions of this kind in the future and indeed that it is now considering becoming a party to the convention.

The hon. Gentleman asked when I first became aware of the analysis that we were doing. My hon. Friend the then Minister for Defence Procurement told the House in May that we would look hard at this allegation, and we began our analysis, but of course we were not investigating this allegation; only the coalition could investigate it, because only the coalition had access to all the information that would be needed to see whether this particular allegation was justified. I concede that the investigation has taken a long time, but we now have the result, and we have the admission from the Saudi authorities that cluster munitions were used, together with the undertaking that they will not be used in future.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Are the Saudis correct in seeing the existence of an Iranian-backed Houthi regime on their southern border as an existential threat to the Kingdom?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

In a word, yes. The Saudis are seeing villages being shelled on a daily basis from across their border. I have yet to hear any Opposition Member condemn that shelling or take any note of the innocent lives that have been lost on the Saudi side of the border, along with, of course, the innocent lives that have been lost in the conflict in Yemen. Absolutely, Saudi Arabia has the right to defend itself.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 12th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

Well, there is no support at the United Nations for the deployment of UN troops in Syria, and there may not be support in this House for the deployment of British troops on the ground in combat in Syria. Our role has been to provide the intelligence gathering from the air and the airstrikes on the ground. I can tell the House that the second front has begun to be opened up now, with a move by the Syrian Democratic Forces towards Raqqa, which is in effect the capital of the caliphate. That began at the end of last week.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

How many fighters originating from the UK have been killed in the various regions? How many remain and how many have returned to the UK?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

If I may, I will write to my right hon. Friend with the exact numbers involved, but we believe that several hundred British fighters remain in either Iraq or Syria. Altogether there are many thousand foreign fighters from western Europe and further afield. One of the issues we will consider this week is how we properly monitor their dispersal either to other theatres or back to our respective countries, and how those who have fought for a proscribed organisation such as Daesh can be properly brought to justice.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

There is no need to write.

[Mr Speaker]

That is very generous-spirited of the right hon. Gentleman.

Liberation of Mosul

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Michael Fallon]

The next step in Iraq is to push Daesh beyond the border, which will mean some mopping-up operations in the north of Syria and to the north and west of Mosul, and clearing Daesh out of some remaining smaller towns along the Euphrates river valley. Members of the coalition, in our regular meetings—we will be meeting in Paris next week—are already looking at what more can be done to counter Daesh globally and whether we can set up structures now that will enable us to respond much more quickly and come to each other’s aid should Daesh resurrect itself in different parts of Africa, or indeed in the far east.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

Given the Abadi regime’s inability to deliver reform, would not we be wise to plan on the basis that Iraq is unlikely to survive as a unitary state and is more likely to break into its constituent confessional and ethnic parts?

[Sir Michael Fallon]

With respect to my right hon. Friend, I do not think that it is for us in this House to question now the integrity of Iraq or start designing a different shape for either it or Syria. We tried that around 100 years ago—indeed, it was a Conservative Back Bencher, Sykes, who first drew the line that runs between Syria and Iraq and presented it to Prime Minister Asquith. My right hon. Friend knows from his own ministerial experience how frustrating the pace of reform has been in Iraq—for example, to get the security and policing right, to delegate sufficient powers to the governors and to ensure that the army is properly accountable. Slowly, those reforms are being put in place. I think that we must continue to do what we are doing, which is accepting that these things are slow, but there is a democratic Government in Iraq who genuinely at the moment represent Shi’a, Sunni and Kurds in Iraq, and we have to work with them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

8. What plans he has for defence deployments to the Falkland Islands; and if he will make a statement.

[Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

12. What plans he has for defence deployments to the Falkland Islands; and if he will make a statement.

[Simon Kirby (Brighton, Kemptown) (Con)]

15. What plans he has for defence deployments to the Falkland Islands; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hammond]

Yes, we are quite confident that we have sufficient naval assets in the area, and we have the ability to reinforce those naval assets should there be any evidence of intent to carry out any form of attack.

[Mr Swayne]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the withdrawal of HMS Endurance some 30 years ago prompted a subsequent invasion, and that although there is no intention whatever to militarise the south Atlantic, proper precautions are absolutely necessary?

[Mr Hammond]

My right hon. Friend is right on two counts. First, it is absolutely necessary to ensure that our intentions are not capable of being misinterpreted. We have the strongest possible intention of defending the Falkland Islanders’ right to self-determination and the strongest intention to defend the islands. Equally, we have no desire or intention to increase the heat around the debate. We are not seeking to take actions that are provocative or cause unnecessary alarm. We will defend the islands—nobody should be under any illusion about that—and we will deploy the forces necessary.

Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Dr Fox]

The whole training defence review and its consequences, including St Athan, will be looked at as part of the wider strategic defence review.

[Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

T9. I declare an interest as a serving Territorial Army officer. In considering the defence review, will my right hon. Friend bear in mind the important role of reservists in recent military conflict, and the potentially more important role that they might play in future conflicts?

[Mr Robathan]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. [Hon. Members: “Gallant.”] Indeed; my hon. and gallant Friend, if hon. Members like, because he certainly is. I pay tribute to him and to my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster), as they have both served in operational theatres, gaining invaluable experience, which they bring to the House to provide knowledge for those debates from which it may conceivably be lacking. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Mr Swayne), and to the reservists. He is absolutely right: historically, for instance in both the first and second world wars, it was the Territorial Army, the yeomanry and so on who made up the bulk of our forces who defeated our enemies.