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Iraq

I welcome the statement with no reservation whatever. Does the Prime Minister agree that the transformation that the Defence Committee saw when we visited Basra this month provides some reassurance to our armed forces that the great sacrifices they make on our behalf are not made in vain and lead eventually to some improvement in the world? As for the figures that the Prime Minister was kind enough to mention in relation to the Defence Committee report, I agree that it was right to maintain the numbers of our armed forces in Iraq at about 4,500 during the spring. What was wrong, if I may put it gently to him, was announcing, in response to the Leader of the Opposition, the figure of 2,500 in the autumn. Let us put that behind us, however, and say that the most important thing now is to continue to build and train the Iraqi forces in precisely the long-term relationship that the Prime Minister described in his statement.