Algeria

Ronnie Campbell Excerpts

Monday 21st January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend makes some very important points. There is no doubt that we have had a problem in recent years with some foreign nationals in this country who have extremist views and extremist aims. It has been very difficult to deport them, even when we have taken huge steps to get safeguards and assurances from the countries to which they will be sent—this applies to the previous Government, too. I am personally convinced that we must crack the problem and need to consider all possible avenues to do that. My hon. Friend is right, too, about the Justice and Security Bill, as we owe that to our security services. The Bill does not apply to criminal trials; it is for use when our security services are, in effect, being sued through the civil courts. It will allow more cases to come to court, rather than fewer.

[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

The Prime Minister is right that there are small terrorist groups, local terrorist groups and big ones, such as al-Qaeda. Who finances these big ones? They feed the other ones, so if we can get to the finance and cut the head off, the body will die.

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely good point. One of the problems in north Africa is that the al-Qaeda franchises have been fed by money from hostage-taking and sometimes very large ransom payments have been made. One thing we will consider at the G8 is whether we can do more to cut off that sort of finance. That is vital in Somalia and in north Africa, too.