Oral Answers to Questions

Thangam Debbonaire Excerpts

Tuesday 21st February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)]

1. When he next plans to meet the US Secretary of State.

[Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)]

10. What assessment he has made of the implications of the policies of the new US Administration for UK foreign policy.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

12. What assessment he has made of the implications of the policies of the new US Administration for UK foreign policy.

--- Later in debate ---

[Boris Johnson]

The right hon. Gentleman will know very well that the Government did not support the travel measures that were introduced by the Executive order. They were not something we would commend to this House and it was not the kind of policy we would like to see enacted in this country, and we made that very clear to our friends in America. It was by engaging constructively with the White House and others that we were able to secure the important clarification that the Executive order would make absolutely no difference to any British passport holder, irrespective of their country of birth.

[Thangam Debbonaire]

I am pleased to hear the Foreign Secretary’s reports of the discussions he had with the Secretary of State, but will he tell us a bit more about how he plans to manage the important tripartite relationship between the UK, the EU and the US, post-Brexit?

[Boris Johnson]

The hon. Lady asks a good question. Obviously, on some things we will differ from our American friends—we have just had an example of that—but on some areas we will perhaps wish to stiffen the spines of our European friends. I can think of issues such as sanctions over Ukraine, on which some EU members are not in quite the same space as we are. As would be expected, the policy of the United Kingdom would be to stick up for UK interests and values and—if I can use a bit of jargon—to triangulate dynamically between the two.