HC Deb 01 March 1999 vol 326 c734
33. Mr. Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow)

If she will establish an ad hoc Select Committee on the effects of sanctions against Iraq. [72128]

The Parliamentary Secretary, Privy Council Office (Mr. Paddy Tipping)

There are no plans to do so.

Mr. Dalyell

As the mind of the Foreign Affairs Committee is elsewhere, and as apparently more ordnance has been rained down on Iraq since Desert Fox than during Desert Fox, which in turn involved more ordnance and bombs than the Gulf war, are we not in a state of undeclared war? Should not an ad hoc Select Committee at least look at that?

In relation to the oil-for-food programme, should not a Select Committee examine Dennis Halliday and Michael Stone, the people who run the programme, who argue that it was in no way corrupted, and take into account the rupturing of the oil line with Turkey? Finally, could such a Committee look at the Tribune of a fortnight ago—and those horrifying pictures on the front of the paper that I sent to my right hon. Friend the President of the Council? Should it not be considered whether it is really the job of a Labour Government in effect to do that to those babies?

Mr. Tipping

My hon. Friend has pursued those issues with vigour on a number of occasions. I am sure that he will continue to do so. His original question was to do with the processes by which the House deals with those matters, rather than with their substance. I have heard his concerns, and he can be sure that I will pass them on to the relevant colleagues. I also know that he will continue to pursue the matter, as he has this afternoon, with his usual vigour and intellect.