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Troop Deployment (Afghanistan)

I thank the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) for the discussions that we have already had and for the tone of his comments today, too. It is entirely appropriate that Her Majesty’s Opposition and others ask the sort of questions that he is asking. It might be of some assurance to him to learn that part of the reason that we have not yet announced any deployment is precisely that I have been asking some of the same questions. When we send our young men and women into a dangerous area, we ought to ask those questions. I will not answer those questions today, however, because as I said—and it is absolutely truthful—I cannot make an announcement about a specific deployment until such time as I have consulted. If other questions are raised that cause me to reflect further, I assure the hon. Member for Woodspring that I shall not hesitate to come to the House to update it tomorrow and say that we have decided that we need further time on any of those matters. The questions that the hon. Gentleman has raised—the environment and ambience of the space in Helmand into which our troops will enter, right through to the chain of command, the clarity of mission, the adequate resources to accompany the military presence, the funding, the nature of handover of prisoners and the nature of our allies—are all perfectly legitimate. I will do my best today to assure him that I have already been addressing those questions, and that the answers are sufficiently robust to allow us to think that, in some areas at least, on the basis of the two big criteria that I mentioned, we might proceed. On the question of the sharing of ideals, I have no doubt whatsoever that the hon. Gentleman shares the ideals of the whole House and of the whole world. It was, of course, United Nations auspices that caused us to go into Afghanistan. Whatever we do tomorrow in the statement or in the coming months, there is no one in the House who wants to see Afghanistan handed back to the terrorists or to the Taliban.