Report of the Iraq Inquiry

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Wednesday 6th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is one of the most humane and, rightly, well-liked Members of the House—indeed, I think that he is almost loved in many parts. I say to him very gently that my long-term ambition is to persuade him not to use the word “you” in exchanges in the House, but we will leave it there for today.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

With regard to lessons learned, may I ask the Prime Minister to reflect on the situation in Syria? The original proposal was for airstrikes against Assad, but later there was a vote for airstrikes against Daesh. Voices in the House today have said that it was the inaction the first time that left the chaos in Syria just now, which is just inconceivable. With regard to post-conflict planning, I urge the Prime Minister to ensure that there is a properly costed plan in place for post-conflict Syria, and one to which all foreign powers have signed up and pledged the right amount of financial support.

[The Prime Minister]

We have made some commitments to supporting a post-conflict reconstruction plan for Syria, but I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman about the two votes we had in this House. We won one of them, but I wish that we had won both. I think that taking action against Assad would have been a stronger response against his use of chemical weapons and a stronger response by the west. I think that it would have encouraged the legitimate opposition and that it could have helped bring the conflict to a more rapid closure. The second vote, which we did win, was right. Britain has played a very proud part in the progress that has been made in Syria, making sure that the people who directly threaten us in this country are being properly combated.

EU Council

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Wednesday 29th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Well, he did. It is a topsy-turvy world: I have never felt greater support from my party, and I am leaving; and I have never seen an Opposition leader with less support, and he is staying. As someone who is about to enter the political graveyard, perhaps I could misquote my favourite band and say, “Let’s meet at the cemetery gates”.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

A farmer in my constituency is thinking of emigrating, the possible impact on CAP payments being the straw that broke the camel’s back. On the basis of an earlier answer, will the Prime Minister confirm that there can be certainty of income from CAP payments to 2020 only if the Scottish Government find a way to stay in the EU?

[The Prime Minister]

What needs to happen is for a negotiation to be completed and for the CAP payments that are set out in the negotiation 2014 to 2020 to continue up until then, and then for a future Government—the UK Government, but also, now, the Scottish Parliament, with its powerhouse financial powers—to decide the payments they want to make to Scottish farmers.

Outcome of the EU Referendum

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Monday 27th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously, I have spoken to the Taoiseach, and I will be seeing him again tomorrow. He is taking an incredibly constructive and helpful approach. He is obviously very sad that Britain has decided to leave the European Union, but the relationship between Britain and the Republic is stronger than it has been for many, many years. What we have to do now is to sit down with officials in Northern Ireland and officials in the Republic to work out the best way of conserving all the parts of the common travel area that have been so beneficial and how we can do that in a world in which we are not in the European Union. It will be difficult, but we have to find a way through.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

I fail to see how a Prime Minister who is working his notice can actually guarantee the continued involvement of the devolved Administrations for what is possibly a two-year period. However, can he confirm that the Scottish Government’s initial involvement will mean that they are able to represent the will of Scotland, which is to stay in Europe?

[The Prime Minister]

The Cabinet agreed this morning that there should be the greatest possible involvement of Scotland, Wales and the Government in Northern Ireland in drawing up and understanding all the challenges that we need to meet in this negotiation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Wednesday 8th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The reassurance that I can give my hon. Friend is that we fixed the European budget for a seven-year period between 2014 and 2020, and we fixed a total for that budget that was lower than for the previous seven-year period, which means that European budgets are going to go down, not up. That cannot be changed. This is a very important point. That overall ceiling of spending is determined by all 28 Prime Ministers and Presidents. There is a veto over changing it, just as there is a veto over the British rebate. The only person who can give up the British rebate is the British Prime Minister, and as long as I am Prime Minister there is absolutely no prospect of that happening. As my hon. Friend ended his question with a remark, I will end my answer with a remark: there is no expert saying that we would make a saving from leaving the EU. The only black hole would be in our public finances, because we would have a smaller economy and lower tax receipts, so we would either have to cut spending or put up taxes to make up for that fact.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

Q4. It is time that buses, like trains, were required to provide audiovisual information. This would benefit not just those who are blind or deaf, but many general users. I have written to the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Andrew Jones), on this subject. Will the Prime Minister commit his Government to signing up to an amendment to the Bus Services Bill that would allow such a measure to be implemented in order to provide accessibility for all?

[The Prime Minister]

I will look closely at what the hon. Gentleman says. I think I am right in saying that the Bus Services Bill is a devolved matter, so it affects issues in England rather than in Scotland, but let me look carefully at what he says, because we want to make sure that disabled people can properly use our bus services.

European Council

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Monday 22nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

There are important economic consequences that we need to lay out so that people can see the potential downsides of what I think is a leap in the dark. We have set out a lot this afternoon about how long it would take to put trade deals in place and about how damaging that could be. It would be irresponsible not to be put in front of the British people the consequences of the outcomes.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

There is one deal the Prime Minister has always had control over, which is the disbursement of common agricultural policy payments to farmers. Will he pledge to pass on the €187 million convergence uplift that the EU has provided to the UK? It is actually based on the payments that Scottish farmers receive, which are the lowest in Europe. That would make it much easier to campaign in Scotland with farmers.

[The Prime Minister]

I will look carefully at what the hon. Gentleman says. My memory of the CAP deal—the finance deal and its consequences—is that we actually gave the devolved Administrations a huge amount of leeway to determine the right way to spend their money. I think farmers actually benefit from the way in which this is done, but I will look carefully at the point he makes.

Syria

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Thursday 26th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The answer to that question is that with the ground forces that there are in Syria with whom we are working we can have additional impact on ISIL through carrying out the airstrikes and the air-to-ground support that we are talking about. That can assist us—otherwise, I would not be standing here or arguing for it. Is it perfect? No, it is not. Would it be assisted by further ground troops, following a transition in Syria? Yes, it would. But action now can make a difference.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

To have a chance of success, it is critical that political aims on the future of Syria are agreed by the coalition at the outset, which is not the case at the moment, and that a strategy is developed. That strategy needs to look at who will co-ordinate the ground troops, how they will manage that co-ordination, what will happen where there are gaps in existing ground troops and, most importantly, how we will rebuild a country in which 60% of hospitals are already nearly destroyed or destroyed completely. Getting that political strategy agreed is more important than saying, “I hope it will come with airstrikes.”

[The Prime Minister]

I say to the hon. Gentleman that all those elements are in place: there is a co-ordination mechanism for troops on the ground; there is a plan to reconstruct this country after the war is over; and there is a plan for the transition to take place. Yes, it is complicated and it will take a long time, but that does not mean that there is not a plan, or that it is not the right one.

National Security and Defence

Debate between Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton and Alan Brown

Monday 23rd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

In my view, NATO is the organisation that has kept us safe since the second world war. It has been a very successful alliance. If we can secure a reform of the European Union we will not have to choose between belonging to NATO and belonging to a reformed European Union; we will be able to belong to both. I can see the advantages of that because we will increasingly see—as we see off the coast of Libya—British ships involved in trying to deal with potential threats to our country as part of European Union work that is also at the same time sanctioned by NATO.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

In his statement, the Prime Minister correctly identified cyber-attacks and Daesh activities as the two biggest threats at the moment. Is it not the case that, for each of those activities, Trident is not a deterrent? With nuclear warheads travelling across Britain by road, is it not a £167 billion liability and target, not a deterrent?

[The Prime Minister]

Trident is not supposed to be a deterrent against cyber-attack. Trident is the ultimate insurance policy, in an unsafe and uncertain world, that we can never be subject to nuclear blackmail. That is why, if we look across the United Kingdom, we can see that people support having this ultimate insurance policy in a dangerous world.