Turkey: Zaman Newspaper

Lord Anderson of Swansea Excerpts

Wednesday 9th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I can give that assurance. The Prime Minister made that point very clearly during the summit itself and ensured that language on that was included in the summit’s published conclusions.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Marlesford (Con)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, I am very sorry that the House requires me to take up valuable time to adjudicate. It is the turn of the Labour Benches and, therefore, of the noble Lord, Lord Anderson.

[Lord Anderson of Swansea]

My Lords, is it an unspoken, unwritten part of the deal under discussion that we moderate our criticism of the authoritarian tendencies of the current Turkish Government?

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

No, my Lords. Human rights underpin all the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as I made clear when I appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee of another place recently. We will never hold back from speaking out or from holding people to account on the important issues of the Copenhagen agreement, whereby democracy and the rule of law underpin everything.