Counter-Daesh Update

Kevin Foster Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I have looked at this, both in my current role and when I was a Defence Minister. One of the incredibly frustrating things is the limitation in our ability to offer protection to humanitarian workers and aid convoys and, in certain cases, to civilians on the ground. We need new things in our toolbox if we are not to be faced with these situations again. A few weeks ago, I launched, along with my US counterpart, a new fund designed to bring forward technology that will help us to protect people in conflict situations, and to help us do the things that I know this House gets frustrated that we cannot do. This fund is a call-out for technology innovations and other things that will help us to protect civilians in conflict. It is called “Creating Hope in Conflict”, and I urge all Members who may know organisations, entrepreneurs, and tech specialists who work in this field to look at that to see whether they can help us on some of these issues.

[Kevin Foster (Torbay) (Con)]

It is very encouraging to hear this statement and it is quite a vindication for those of us who accepted the reasoning put forward for the UK to be involved in military action back in 2015, which was so eloquently set out at that time by the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn). It is right that we are now moving the focus on to reconstruction and therefore that this statement is being made by the Department for International Development. Will my right hon. Friend outline to the House what role she sees her Department playing in trying to rebuild communities, as the long-term strategy of dealing with Daesh is to rebuild civil society and better states within both Syria and Iraq that prevent the issues that led us to this point?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for that. We made the argument in this House, and the House agreed, that this campaign was taking place across both countries and that it made no sense that we could not use the nearest asset, if it was a British one, to protect civilians in Syria. I was very grateful to the House when it allowed us to cross that border. That decision has saved lives, and helped us to protect civilians and make the best use of the assets that the coalition has. On Iraq, we are doing a huge amount to support the goal of a unified Iraq. I mentioned in my statement some of the resource we are levering to enable communities to come together to support civil society and some of those practical things we are doing. On Syria, we will not be involved in any reconstruction there until there is a political settlement to that situation, but, obviously, we are trying to get humanitarian relief through to those people who are in need.