Resignation of UK Ambassador to USA

Thangam Debbonaire Excerpts
Thursday 11th July 2019

(5 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Alan Duncan Portrait Sir Alan Duncan
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My hon. and gallant Friend understands chivalry, decency, duty and honour, and that is precisely what we saw yesterday in the personal conduct of Sir Kim Darroch.

Thangam Debbonaire Portrait Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)
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These attacks on, and the undermining of, the legislature, the judiciary, the civil service and the press are profoundly worrying. They have frightening historical echoes of dangerous political forces, and I applaud my right hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton South East for his wise and moving comments.. His illustration of what happens when we have a cowed diplomatic service should haunt us. The Minister has responded with dignity and cross-party inclusivity, so what else does he think we in this House and the other place, and particularly the new Prime Minister and Cabinet, should do to reverse those damaging and worrying trends?

Alan Duncan Portrait Sir Alan Duncan
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We should stick together in defence of the standards that apply to us all. We should ensure that we all uphold those standards in everything we do, and try to keep our political attacks on a higher and non-personal plane than we so often see in this House, in our politics and, more deplorably, on social media.