Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory Debate
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David Reed
Main Page: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)Department Debates - View all David Reed's debates with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory
David Reed Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Mr Falconer
I am appalled by the right hon. Member: Newark may well be a market town but Lincoln is a city, and has been for a very long time, so I invite him to withdraw that remark. [Laughter.] I do not receive a great deal of correspondence from constituents in Lincoln on this question. Mostly, my constituents prioritise Britain’s national security. They understand, through our extensive history in Scampton, Waddington and Cranwell, the important part that Lincolnshire plays in the UK’s national security, and they would expect me and the rest of the Government’s Ministers to prioritise that at all times.
David Reed (Exmouth and Exeter East) (Con)
I think the vast majority of Members of this House can agree that the arguments for giving away our Chagos islands have been threadbare at best, which leads one to believe that there must be sensitive elements to the deal. It was, then, interesting to read what the former FCDO special adviser Ben Judah wrote:
“Once you’ve been briefed, even partially, on what it”—
that is, the base on Diego Garcia—
“does the information gives you vertigo. Both now, and in government, communicating the details to the public would be violating the Official Secrets Acts.”
Given that this deal is going to cost the British taxpayer billions of pounds, does the Minister not believe that it should be incumbent on the Government to declassify some of the information so that we here in Parliament and the British public know what we are paying for?
Mr Falconer
No. We will not declassify what we do at RAF Waddington, and we will not declassify what we do in defence of the realm. It is not a serious proposition. There are obviously mechanisms, through Parliament, by which secret material can be considered through the Intelligence and Security Committee, and we will continue to use those mechanisms.