UK Airstrike: Houthi Military Facility Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Ministry of Defence

UK Airstrike: Houthi Military Facility

Kevin Bonavia Excerpts
Wednesday 30th April 2025

(2 days, 16 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
John Healey Portrait John Healey
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

The right hon. Gentleman is right to remind the House of the extreme hardship faced by many Yemenis in what has been a war-torn country for years. The strikes last night were designed to reduce and prevent the risk of further Houthi attacks, and they were done because we were able to take out an important facility where the Houthis had been manufacturing the very weapons used to target international shipping and our own.

Kevin Bonavia Portrait Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
- View Speech - Hansard - -

I welcome the Defence Secretary’s statement and add my thanks to our service personnel for their action. I would like to talk about what the Houthis have been doing alongside the other terrorist proxies in the middle east, Hamas and Hezbollah, who are controlled by Iran. Therefore, what is this country’s policy on disrupting and containing that network, and attacking the heart of it—namely, Iran itself?

John Healey Portrait John Healey
- View Speech - Hansard - - - Excerpts

My hon. Friend is right. Iran is a destabilising influence across the region, not just in its own terms but in particular in the way it has developed, sponsored and supplied proxy groups. The Houthis are clearly supplied and supported by Iran. Part of the long-term ability to see a secure and conflict-free middle east has got to be a reconciliation that Iran has: for it to stop using those proxies to threaten its neighbours in the region and the interests of countries such as ours.