Jason McCartney
Main Page: Jason McCartney (Conservative - Colne Valley)Department Debates - View all Jason McCartney's debates with the Cabinet Office
(4 months, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberWe have already sanctioned more than 400 Iranian individuals and, as I have said, we are discussing with our allies what more we can do.
I join the Prime Minister in paying tribute to the Royal Air Force personnel who were on operations over the weekend. I also join him on the importance of de-escalating, calling for maximum restraint and, on Gaza, working towards that sustainable ceasefire. A flood of aid is going into Gaza to help the humanitarian efforts there. We all want to see an end to the bloodshed. I echo what the Chair of the Defence Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Sir Jeremy Quin), said—what we saw over the weekend shows the importance of investing in air defence systems to defend civilians from hostile regimes.
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Whether it is with Ukraine, where we have provided AMRAAM and Starstreak missiles, or here at home, where we placed new contracts at the beginning of this year to improve our air defence capability, it is a key capability that we need to invest in, and ideally we need to produce more of it here at home.