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Intelligence and Security Committee

Whatever. The important thing is what the report says, which is that the Prime Minister received specific assurances""on the basis of firm assurances from the United States"" and that""these recent developments have demonstrated that the UK must be more robust in verifying such assurances in the future."" As colleagues on both sides of the House have said, it is correct that we need to be more robust in verifying assurances. Indeed, we want more than assurances. We need to have absolute confidence that what the US tells the British Prime Minister has total veracity. This particular incident suggests that the US is beginning to take us for granted. As the House knows, without consulting the United Kingdom, which had sovereignty, the US put some people from Guantanamo into Bermuda. The other week, Secretary of State Clinton also sent the message that somehow the United Kingdom should negotiate with the Argentines on the sovereignty of the Falkland islands.