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Opposition day on Wednesday, 7 February 2007, in the House of Commons, led by Vincent Cable. The answering member was Kim Howells.

Al-Yamamah Arms Agreement

Al-Yamamah arms agreement. Fifth opposition day debate (part 1). Motion negatived on division (74 to 309). Amendment agreed on question.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
456 c863-912 
Session
2006-07
Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Kim Howells | 456 c906 (Link to this contribution) Yes, it is. As my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-General said in his opening statement and a...
Show all contributions (141)
John Pugh | 456 c906 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has somehow missed out the fact that British citizens have been arrested for terrorism ...
Kim Howells | 456 c906-8 (Link to this contribution) I have met those gentlemen and I have every sympathy with their terrible experience. [Interruption.]...
Kim Howells | 456 c906 (Link to this contribution) I do not have much time, I am afraid. The siege in Riyadh and the fact that a number of those formi...
Kim Howells | 456 c908-9 (Link to this contribution) No, I do not have time; the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey went on for 27 minutes. ...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c897 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but another point concerns the definition of what const...
Martin Horwood | 456 c897-8 (Link to this contribution) I think the hon. Gentleman is stepping on the SFO’s territory here. I do not think that was actually...
Martin Horwood | 456 c896-7 (Link to this contribution) I am conscious of the time, so I shall try to be brief. This is a vital debate. The Government argu...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 456 c901 (Link to this contribution) Is not it strange that an inquiry that rumbled on for two years was discontinued just as all the fac...
Simon Hughes | 456 c900-1 (Link to this contribution) I agree entirely. I can do no more than say that the Liberal Democrats want that to happen soon. Ne...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c900 (Link to this contribution) I agree with that and of course, such a Bill would allow us to have a sensible debate about definiti...
Martin Horwood | 456 c898 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that reply, but I do not see any evidence that the issues were truly considered. T...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c898 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making some interesting points, and they are points that we had to consider in...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c902 (Link to this contribution) The SIS is happy for me to tell the House that it considered that there would be a risk to the UK’s ...
Simon Hughes | 456 c902 (Link to this contribution) I understand that, and do not dissent. Of course I accept what the Solicitor-General says and what h...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c903 (Link to this contribution) I may regret saying this, as I am sure that it will produce a great deal of comment, but the hon. Ge...
Simon Hughes | 456 c903-5 (Link to this contribution) I completely understand that argument, but it would have been perfectly proper for Law Officers to r...
Simon Hughes | 456 c901-2 (Link to this contribution) I shall come to the issue of national security, because in the end it clearly determined the decisio...
Kim Howells | 456 c906 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to right hon. and hon. Members for their contributions to this afternoon’s debate, whi...
Simon Hughes | 456 c905 (Link to this contribution) I want to conclude, because we are keen to hear the response from the Minister for the Middle East. ...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c905 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has just said that Law Officers made a decision. In fact, it was the director of ...
Simon Hughes | 456 c905 (Link to this contribution) I am not going to give way. We had, by the Attorney-General’s own admission, consideration given to...
Roger Berry | 456 c890 (Link to this contribution) I should like to make my final introductory point before I come to my concerns. We have little time....
Mike O'Brien | 456 c891 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has raised an important point. Merely causing problems in terms of a relationship wit...
Roger Berry | 456 c891-2 (Link to this contribution) That longish intervention is clearly helpful to the debate. I await the outcome of the OECD investig...
Judy Mallaber | 456 c890 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend comment on the excellent and positive briefing that we, as members of the Quadri...
Roger Berry | 456 c890-1 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I do have concerns, which I shall come to. The reason that I make t...
Andrew George | 456 c892 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is making a very good case. Further to the plausibility of the argument that Saud...
Roger Berry | 456 c892 (Link to this contribution) I am happy to accept the argument of a Government whom I support that the security interest was a se...
Kim Howells | 456 c892 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right to raise this point. I assure him that the Government would certainly not ac...
Roger Berry | 456 c892 (Link to this contribution) Of course, I accept my hon. Friend’s assurance. I can, however, appreciate the enormous difficulties...
Mark Hendrick | 456 c892 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree with the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) that payments made over...
Roger Berry | 456 c892-3 (Link to this contribution) One learns something new every day. I did not know that I could walk over to my colleagues on the Fr...
Roger Berry | 456 c893 (Link to this contribution) The reason why I do not support an independent inquiry, as proposed in the motion, is that this invo...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c893-5 (Link to this contribution) Although I disagree with the hon. Member for Kingswood (Roger Berry), I must say, in the light of my...
Martin Horwood | 456 c895 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. and learned Gentleman describes the investigation as perhaps unacceptable to the Saud...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c895 (Link to this contribution) I have no personal reason to wish to see such an examination continue. My interest and, I should ima...
Simon Hughes | 456 c895 (Link to this contribution) Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman accept that the constitutional principle on which we have ...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c895 (Link to this contribution) I understand what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I do not agree with the thrust of his remarks, b...
Roger Berry | 456 c888-9 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to take part in this important debate. As my hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-...
Speaker | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman should be dealing with his speech for the time being.
John Pugh | 456 c888 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman mentioned parliamentary scrutiny, but he has so far not mentioned the Comptroller...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c888 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right to raise that. It is the last point that I intended to deal with. I cann...
Rob Marris | 456 c887 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for showing his usual generosity. In reply to an intervention by...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c887-8 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I do, and I am trying to explain to the House why, when I considered the matter, I came to the ...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c887 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman, but then I will make progress.
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c886 (Link to this contribution) I do not disagree with what my hon. Friend says, but perhaps he does not go far enough. If the ultim...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c887 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend is perfectly right. I am not usually fair to the Pri...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Roger Berry | 456 c890 (Link to this contribution) There is correct and incorrect. ““Technically correct”” is correct. I drew attention to Lord Gilmour...
Roger Berry | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) I am more delighted by the interventions as the debate goes on. I accept what the hon. Gentleman say...
Robert Smith | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) As final clarification, may I cite a more reliable publication, ““Dod””? Back in the early 1970s, Lo...
Roger Berry | 456 c889-90 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted. I hope that that is the final intervention on the point. I did not see the wording o...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c890 (Link to this contribution) I misled the hon. Gentleman. I have now had the opportunity to check. Lord Gilmour became briefly, f...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) Educating the hon. Gentleman must be in the interests of the House. Lord Gilmour was never Secretary...
Roger Berry | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful. I do not read The Daily Telegraph as often as perhaps I should. I probably now know w...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c889 (Link to this contribution) Prior to 2001 it was not a criminal offence in this country to bribe foreign officials abroad. Apply...
Tobias Ellwood | 456 c878 (Link to this contribution) The Solicitor-General is making the case for security concerns in relation to Saudi Arabia. Were the...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c877-8 (Link to this contribution) The Attorney-General spent not, as the hon. Member for Twickenham put it, a few hours, but several d...
Rob Marris | 456 c877 (Link to this contribution) May I take my hon. and learned Friend back to when he referred to the Attorney-General coming to the...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c877 (Link to this contribution) There were investigations going on and the SFO was clear that they would have taken another 18 month...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c878 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend the Minister for the Middle East will be able to deal with that when he winds up. Tha...
Lord Spellar | 456 c875 (Link to this contribution) I think that my hon. and learned Friend was slightly unfair to say that the Liberal Democrats do not...
Vincent Cable | 456 c877 (Link to this contribution) Surely the Solicitor-General is aware that, before 2002, it was still an offence to engage in false ...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c876-7 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman knows the importance of our relationship with Saudi Arabia in with dealing terror...
Andrew George | 456 c876 (Link to this contribution) The Solicitor-General still needs to address the plausibility of the claim that the Saudis would wit...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c875-6 (Link to this contribution) I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention. Members of the House have not been kept in the ...
Simon Hughes | 456 c885-6 (Link to this contribution) I have just one other point to make, because I do not want there to be disagreement where there need...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c885 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Solicitor-General for his comments, which remind me that I have not dealt with ...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c885 (Link to this contribution) I have listened with care to the hon. Gentleman’s argument. He has raised the issue of the law of ag...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c884-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. This is one of the reasons why this matter should be d...
Simon Hughes | 456 c884 (Link to this contribution) Does the shadow Attorney-General acknowledge that the decision was not made on the basis that there ...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c884 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a legitimate point. I simply have not the slightest idea how much money has bee...
Tobias Ellwood | 456 c884 (Link to this contribution) It is useful to place this matter in context. The al-Yamamah deal is worth £40 billion, and we are t...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c882-4 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I understand that, which is why I intervened to make the point that, as so often happens in the...
Vincent Cable | 456 c882 (Link to this contribution) May I repeat my point? If the documents on the 1980s were available, we would all be able to gain a ...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c880 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I hope that my comments were temperate. I could think of othe...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c882 (Link to this contribution) In one way, that could not have been better said. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, but that r...
Martin Horwood | 456 c882 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman talks about the economic benefits of the deal and the value of relations with Sau...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c879-80 (Link to this contribution) When a decision was made, quite properly and in accord with the law, the director of the Serious Fra...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 456 c879 (Link to this contribution) Is the situation that, at the beginning of December, plea bargaining was being considered in some sh...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c878-9 (Link to this contribution) I cannot remember the precise date. It would probably be about the end of the first week of December...
Simon Hughes | 456 c878 (Link to this contribution) The Solicitor-General has raised the issue that the Attorney-General raised last week in the House o...
Vincent Cable | 456 c867-8 (Link to this contribution) One practical way in which the Minister for the Middle East, who I think will be speaking next, coul...
Andrew George | 456 c867 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has kindly acknowledged the debate that took place on 24 January, in which I question...
Vincent Cable | 456 c866-7 (Link to this contribution) Yes, the issue of jobs is of course important, and it does concern me and I will return to it. Howev...
Lord Spellar | 456 c866 (Link to this contribution) Can the hon. Gentleman, who has been speaking for some 11 minutes, tell us whether he thinks it a go...
Vincent Cable | 456 c866 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is rather clutching at straws. If there were any hint that that was the problem, ...
Rob Marris | 456 c866 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way in his usual, gracious way. Has it occurred to hi...
Vincent Cable | 456 c864-6 (Link to this contribution) As my hon. Friends just commented from a sedentary position, in that case there is absolutely nothin...
Vincent Cable | 456 c863 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes the Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO) ongoing investigation into the...
Edward Leigh | 456 c863 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right; I have not read it, but let me explain the history. My predecessor as C...
Speaker | 456 c863 (Link to this contribution) I must announce to the House that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Mi...
Vincent Cable | 456 c870 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman puts the point well. That is indeed what is humiliating this country and the Gove...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 456 c869 (Link to this contribution) Is not the overriding consideration that we live under the rule of law? Members on both sides of the...
Vincent Cable | 456 c869 (Link to this contribution) I think that it has been financially and economically highly questionable. It is a future issue as w...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c869 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may have misconstrued my intervention. I had noted that at an earlier stage in hi...
Vincent Cable | 456 c869 (Link to this contribution) It is economically illiterate to say that any £40 billion deal is acceptable at any price. Had the h...
Tobias Ellwood | 456 c869 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that had the Liberal Democrats been in power—let us stretch our imag...
Tobias Ellwood | 456 c868 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way and I am conscious of his experience in the oil i...
Vincent Cable | 456 c868 (Link to this contribution) They would not necessarily have been tarnished in the way that has been portrayed by the Government....
Dominic Grieve | 456 c868 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s point, but I am interested in trying to understand whether with th...
Lord Spellar | 456 c871 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Vincent Cable | 456 c871 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman normally has a higher standard of wit than that. I was talking about our relatio...
Rob Marris | 456 c871 (Link to this contribution) Just like the Liberal Democrats.
Vincent Cable | 456 c871 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is rehearsing the legal arguments for one side, but there is another side—our Ser...
Vincent Cable | 456 c871-2 (Link to this contribution) I have given the Minister a go, so I shall just wind up my remarks. The main and final point that I...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c870 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman says that he has reached his final comments, but he has not yet addressed the iss...
Vincent Cable | 456 c870-1 (Link to this contribution) I was going to come on to that point, but I have read the comments by the company carefully, as I wa...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c871 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman seems to be moving to a key issue. On the one hand he says that the payments were...
Vincent Cable | 456 c870 (Link to this contribution) National security considerations must of course be at the centre of decisions of this kind. The poin...
Kim Howells | 456 c870 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has just made a serious allegation against BAE Systems—[Interruption.] One of his...
Lord Spellar | 456 c873 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?
Mike O'Brien | 456 c873 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, To leave out from ““House”” to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:"‘...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c873 (Link to this contribution) I hope that my right hon. Friend will bear with me for a little while. The Liberal Democrats may use...
Lord Spellar | 456 c872 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Edward Leigh | 456 c872 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman want an answer?
Vincent Cable | 456 c872 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has tried once, and I am sure that he will have another attempt shortly. The rep...
Vincent Cable | 456 c872-3 (Link to this contribution) Well, I am sure that the Minister who makes that assertion has read Mr. Mitchell’s book. If all tho...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c874 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way to the hon. Gentleman because I want him to provide evidence that Robert Wardle, th...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c875 (Link to this contribution) What is the hon. Gentleman implying? Does he seriously imply that the person who made the decision—t...
Simon Hughes | 456 c874 (Link to this contribution) The Solicitor-General knows that no one on the Liberal Democrat Benches has impugned the integrity o...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c873-4 (Link to this contribution) The Attorney-General looked with great care at the details of this investigation. He reached the sam...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c874 (Link to this contribution) Well, the OECD convention makes it clear that it is illegal to bring in economic issues. The Liberal...
Mike O'Brien | 456 c875 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way to the hon. Gentleman again, but I will give way to my right hon. Friend the Me...
Vincent Cable | 456 c868-9 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the hon. Gentleman should consult his former colleague, John McGregor, who has exceptionally...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c886 (Link to this contribution) I certainly do not wish to have an unnecessary disagreement with the hon. Gentleman, and it is quite...
Speaker | 456 c880 (Link to this contribution) I would say to the right hon. Gentleman that the comment was not directed at an individual hon. Memb...
Malcolm Rifkind | 456 c895-6 (Link to this contribution) I am conscious of the limited time, and I hope that I will be forgiven for not giving way again. On...
Angus Brendan MacNeil | 456 c893 (Link to this contribution) The point about bribery seems to be that if one is brazen about it, it is okay. Much has been made ...
Lord Beith | 456 c880 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Is it in order to question the integrity of other hon. Memb...
Vincent Cable | 456 c872 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman can make a speech in due course. The question that we on these Benches ask...
Simon Hughes | 456 c898-900 (Link to this contribution) The decision to call this debate has proved worth while. The hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Griev...
Dominic Grieve | 456 c880-2 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on presenting a debate on what is without ...
Subjects
Contracts Air traffic control Corruption Arms trade Ministry of Defence Terrorism Serious Fraud Office USA Saudi Arabia Committee of Public Accounts al Qaeda Tanzania BAE Systems
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