Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether there is a link between Muslim extremism and United Kingdom policies in the Middle East.

There is no justifiable link between Islamist extremism and British policy in the Middle East. As the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), said on 20 July, “The root cause of the threat we face is the extremist ideology itself.”

The UK continues to make a significant contribution to countering Islamist extremism and terrorism across the Middle East, including through the UK’s leading role in the Global Coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.