US Troop Withdrawal from Northern Syria Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

US Troop Withdrawal from Northern Syria

Matthew Offord Excerpts
Tuesday 8th October 2019

(4 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts

Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.

This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record

Andrew Murrison Portrait Dr Murrison
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The hon. Lady needs to help us to reassure Kurds in this country about the extent of what, as we understand it, is being proposed. This has been threatened before, so I suspect that Kurds will live their lives in a state of constant anxiety, given the very difficult part of the world in which they and their loved ones live. So far as I know, nothing has happened yet, so I do not think we should do anything that would heighten their anxieties. The information we have is that if it happens, Turkey’s incursion into Syria is going to be modest in scope and that the US response to that is going to be similarly modest. Obviously, we have to watch and await events, but I do not think we should do anything that is going to cause Kurds resident in the UK too much anxiety. That would be the wrong thing to do, and I hope the hon. Lady will assist us in making sure that people are given an accurate view of what is going on.

Matthew Offord Portrait Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con)
- Hansard - -

How many British-born Daesh supporters does the Minister believe remain in Syria?

Andrew Murrison Portrait Dr Murrison
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I do not know and I am not going to speculate.