Richard Foord
Main Page: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)Department Debates - View all Richard Foord's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(1 month, 1 week ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Deputy Prime Minister
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her leadership on these issues. I assure her that the summit will take place as soon as possible. We are having ongoing discussions with the European Union on SPS, youth mobility, steel and a range of issues on a day-to-day basis.
Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)
A week ago, the Prime Minister said that the UK would support the deal between the United States and Iran by standing up a “defensive, independent, multilateral mission”. At the planning stage, that was designed to restore freedom of navigation to the strait of Hormuz. In May, the UK was supposed to deploy drones, Typhoon fighter jets and HMS Dragon to such a future mission, whereas today the Deputy Prime Minister spoke of “immediate support for de-mining.” What will the deployment involve, and what might trigger it, please?
The Deputy Prime Minister
Of course, HMS Dragon should be ready for any mission to secure the strait of Hormuz, with the advanced British military mine clearance specialists I referred to, Typhoons ready to conduct air patrols over the strait, and the Royal Navy’s modular Beehive system, which can deliver high-speed autonomous Kraken drone boats to track and identify potential threats and defeat them.