Defence Oral Questions

Concerned that the continued involvement of the British armed forces on two fronts is overstretching our troops, on Monday Nick raised the following question in the House:

  Nick Harvey (Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Defence; North Devon, Liberal Democrat)

Can the Secretary of State cast any light on the BBC reports of a week or so ago that by the end of the year the Government would be in a position to announce a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq? We have heard President Bush warn against it, but yesterday the Foreign Secretary said in a BBC interview:

“We have to complete what we have started and the priority… was the training of the 14th Division around Basra.”

What is the Government’s estimate of the time scale for completion of that work? Are there any other specific projects that we “have to complete” before we have concluded our task? Will we be in a position to tell a new United States President next January that the sustainability of our long-term commitment in Afghanistan necessitates a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq?

Des Browne (Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Kilmarnock & Loudoun, Labour)

The hon. Gentleman—understandably—raises this issue regularly at Question Time and during debates, and I think that I consistently give him the same answer: that decisions about the level of our forces in Iraq will depend on military advice, which in turn will reflect the conditions. As he knows, during my time as Secretary of State the number of our troops in Iraq has roughly halved, which reflects the changing conditions.

We have set ourselves a number of tasks. At the end of the day, we will make a decision on whether the Iraqi security forces are sufficiently trained to be able to hold and sustain the security that we, along with other allies, have helped them to create. The hon. Gentleman and the House can rest assured that when that day comes, I or another member of the Government will come here and tell the House, not the BBC.

We feel that the withdrawal of forces from Iraq is long overdue, and that the continued involvement of British forces in Iraq is posing a threat to our troops’ mission in Afghanistan. However, the Defence Team would be very interested to hear your views on this.