Iraq and Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict

Mike Gapes Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Noting his fetching white jacket, which is sparkling indeed, I call Mr Mike Gapes.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Foreign Secretary was a Minister in John Major’s Government, a Government who used military intervention to impose a no-fly zone to protect the Kurds. That policy was continued and enhanced under the Tony Blair Government. We would not have millions of Iraqi Kurds living in peace, prosperity and democracy without the intervention that took place to protect them from Saddam. If we had brought back Saddam or Uday, the Kurds would have suffered in the same way as the rest of the Iraqis are suffering today. Therefore, if the Kurdistan Regional Government request assistance, should we not give such a request sympathetic consideration?

[Mr Hague]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman about the importance of what we did, in this country, to protect the Kurds. Only a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government was here. We hear all the time, as he will have heard, the continuing gratitude of the people of that region for what the United Kingdom did.

I am not arguing against all military interventions; I am saying that in this situation, now, in Iraq, we are not planning a military intervention. I am not saying that there will never be any circumstances in the world in which we may need to make a military intervention—far from it. We have had no such request from Kurdistan. Indeed, the forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government have acquitted themselves well in recent days, and they have been an important part of bringing about stability in the northern areas of Iraq. We have not received such a request, and we do not envisage such a request at the moment.