Julian Smith
Main Page: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)Department Debates - View all Julian Smith's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 day, 17 hours ago)
Commons ChamberTom Fletcher is leading our work in relation to this, and we have been clear throughout that aid cannot get in at the scale and volume that is needed without the UN. That is why we have always championed and said that the UN should be part of that distribution.
It is fitting that this statement is followed by one on Northern Ireland. The UK has world-leading experience in sustaining peace, whether it is security, intelligence or military, and whether it is decommissioning, policing or political institutions. Could I urge the Prime Minister to do an audit of the generations of civil servants and, dare I say, special advisers who have experience in this area and put them on offer, to sustain this peace deal?
I thank the right hon. Member for that suggestion. I also want to acknowledge his role in Northern Ireland. He was rightly held in high respect in Northern Ireland and across this House and continues to be, because of what he did and the way in which he went about it; that should be a model for so many more of us in this House. The idea of reaching into the expertise we have across different parties and different Governments is one that I will take up, so I thank him for that suggestion.