Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Lefroy Excerpts

Tuesday 15th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am extremely grateful to the Minister of State. I say this principally for the benefit of new Members who might not have heard me say it before: I once asked a predecessor of the Clerk of the House why it was that Foreign Office questions always seemed to take longer than other Question Times, to which, having consulted his scholarly cranium, he replied, “Mr Speaker, I think it is on account of the fact that when Ministers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office address the House, they feel they are addressing not merely the House, or even the nation, but in fact the world.”

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

14. What agreements were reached at the 2018 G7 meeting in Canada.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Boris Johnson)]

The most important conclusion of the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting was that we condemned roundly Russia’s disruptive activity and, at the suggestion of the UK, launched a new G7 group to tackle malign state behaviour, building on a Canadian initiative, and to defend democracies from foreign interference.

[Jeremy Lefroy]

I welcome the statement from the G7 on support for effective measures to promote further verifiable nuclear arms control and disarmament. Will that be on every agenda of G7 Foreign Ministers meetings, and will the UK be taking a lead?

[Boris Johnson]

As my hon. Friend knows, and as I said in answer to an earlier question, we are increasingly concerned about nuclear proliferation. As the House can readily see, that issue is now at the absolute top of the global agenda, and he can be sure that the UK will continue to push it at the G7 and elsewhere.

--- Later in debate ---

[Boris Johnson]

I can certainly reassure the hon. and learned Lady that the Prime Minister will be raising the very difficult situation in the north of Syria.

[Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford) (Con)]

What assessment have the Government made of the human rights and political situation in Burundi at the moment?

[Harriett Baldwin]

We are very concerned about the situation in Burundi. There is a referendum there this week and, as my hon. Friend will know, Her Majesty’s Government continue to send messages about the need to respect the Arusha peace accords and to respect democracy in Burundi.