Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department received legal advice on its recognition of Juan Guiaido as interim President of Venezuela.

On 30 December 2022 the 2015 National Assembly of Venezuela democratically voted to disband the interim Government and the position of constitutional interim President held by Juan Guaidó, with effect from 5 January 2023. On 12 January, I [Minister Rutley] published a Written Ministerial Statement, noting that the United Kingdom respects the result of this vote. We commend former interim President Guaidó for his service to the Venezuelan people. We continue to consider the National Assembly elected in 2015 as the last democratically elected National Assembly in Venezuela. We continue not to accept the legitimacy of the administration put in place by Nicolas Maduro since 2019. We do not comment on when legal advice has been received.