Falkland Islands

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 4th April 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

The noble Lord makes an extremely important point. It is worth saying, as many have said in the past few weeks, that the bravery being shown by the people of Ukraine, playing out day after day, is staggering. I am pleased also that one thing that has enabled Ukraine to achieve what we hope is success—it is hard to know exactly what is going on—is the contributions made by this Government. That point was made emphatically yesterday by Ukraine’s President. On the Falkland Islands specifically, as noble Lords would expect, we conduct regular assessments of any military threats to the Falklands on a routine basis. We are always aware of the need to retain appropriate levels of defensive capabilities.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I agree with noble Lords that this is the appropriate time to honour the 255 British deaths, the 649 Argentinian deaths and the three Falkland Islanders who also died during the conflict. But, as the noble Lord has rightly indicated, we need to be very wary. Has the Minister seen the article by the Argentinian Foreign Minister stating that, although they wish to maintain good, strong diplomatic and trading relationships, they were seeking to make linkage between sovereignty of people who are in the Falkland Islands and our relationship, going forward. Will the Minister put on record that we will not link the sovereignty and the choice of those people with the good relations we wish to seek to have with Argentina?

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con)]

I did see the op-ed, and obviously that has been shared around the FCDO and Government. But the reality is that this is not a bilateral issue between the UK—or, indeed, anyone—to be negotiated between our two countries. This is about the islanders’ wishes, and those wishes are paramount.

I mentioned in my opening remarks the referendum: I cannot think of a single referendum in the history of referenda where the result has been as emphatic, with nearly 100% turnout and nearly 100% support. It is very clear what the Falkland Islanders want, and it is our duty to ensure that that is what they get.