Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by David Leslie Taylor (Labour). It was answered on Monday, 22 May 2006 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Iraq

Question: As my right hon. Friend said, Adam Morris, a 19-year-old soldier from Hugglescote in north-west Leicestershire, was killed by a roadside bomb near Basra nine days ago along with a colleague from the Royal Anglian Regiment as they travelled in a Land Rover protected only by composite fibreglass. As well as extending deep condolences to Adam’s family and friends, the House will endorse the Leicester Mercury letter-writing campaign to boost the regiment’s morale. Does the Secretary of State agree that a large majority in both the United Kingdom and Iraq want an early withdrawal of foreign troops? Does he think that partition is necessary to prevent the country from descending further into an anarchistic hell-hole?

Answer: May I first commend my hon. Friend for his support not only for his constituent’s family, but for the Royal Anglian Regiment? I met members of the regiment in Basra last week, and I can reassure him, his constituents and, indeed, his local newspaper, that the morale of those soldiers was very high. In my short time in this job I have been struck by how often our forces meet our expectation, whatever adversity they face, that they will maintain the highest standards not only of morale but of discipline, application and duty. On the meat of his question, it is of course our ambition and intention to remove our troops from Iraq, but we shall do so in the proper context, which has been set out on numerous occasions at the Dispatch Box and involves the nature of the threat, the capacity of Iraqi forces to provide security for their own people, the capacity of their Government both at national and provincial level to govern, and our own ability to respond to support the Iraqi Government’s ambitions. I can say no more than that in support of our position in Iraq.

Secondary information