Tunisia, and European Council

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Not enough. The aid and assistance has been much more focused on building up Tunisian democracy and the institutions of this fledgling democracy. Given the scale of the threat, however, we will have to look again at these partnership programmes, and obviously education should be part of that, bearing in mind the danger of radicalisation, which the Tunisians are looking at themselves. In addition, these countries often have parts that are quite wealthy and successful and parts that are falling behind, and we need to address that challenge, too.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend has already said that the threat here remains “severe”. He and my constituents will have read the report in The Times this morning that Scorpion automatic weapons might have been imported into the UK. What can he say to reassure the people of this country?

[The Prime Minister]

I will not comment on a specific report, but my hon. Friend is right that the threat level in Britain is “severe”. It is set independently by the joint terrorism analysis centre, and “severe” means that an attack is highly likely. He also makes the important point that we should continue to do everything we can to keep the trade in weapons, including replica weapons, out of Britain. A lot of action has been taken, and the National Crime Agency is doing very good work, but we need to keep up the pressure.