European Council 2016 Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Cabinet Office

European Council 2016

Nick Smith Excerpts
Monday 19th December 2016

(7 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait The Prime Minister
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words. I assure him that I am focused, as is the Department for Exiting the European Union and everybody across government, on delivering what overall the British people wanted, which is leaving the European Union.

Nick Smith Portrait Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
- Hansard - -

May I press the Prime Minister: how will our Government hold President Assad to account for the decimation of Aleppo?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait The Prime Minister
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

This is a matter that we and others in the international community will be looking at. Of course, at the moment President Assad is still there in Syria. We have said from the beginning that we want to see a political transition away from President Assad, but we are very clear that we need to look carefully at all the actions that have been taken in relation to the conflict in Syria and ensure that people are held to account for those actions, including, obviously, the ones that break international humanitarian law.