Swindon Advertiser Weekly Article - 4th December

On Wednesday we saw Parliament at its finest. After a ten and a half hour debate (over thirty hours in total over the past week), MPs put their party politics aside and shaped a discussion based completely on their morals and integrity, before delivering a decisive, cross-party decision to extend UK air strikes into Syria.

Over the past few weeks I have been inundated with hundreds of pieces of correspondence from local residents on both sides of the debate. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank them; I have read each one and will be responding individually as I always do. Some will be disappointed with what I’ve got to say, but after the debate this week, I was wholeheartedly in favour of extending airstrikes in a bid to rid the world of this terrible evil that is ISIL – also known as Daesh.

In the past year, we have witnessed horror on the streets of Paris, death to British citizens on the beaches of Tunisia and the brutal beheadings of British hostages. We are also told that our security services have thwarted seven different plots intending to cause death and destruction on our own streets. Never before has the UK been faced with such a significant threat to our security, with an attack at the top of Daesh’s target list. Nobody should be in any doubt of the necessity to destroy this threat, and as a result, Wednesday’s debate was about how we fight terrorism, not whether we fight terrorism.

We are in no doubt that this is an incredibly complicated situation with no simple answers. It is clear that we must have a comprehensive political, diplomatic and humanitarian strategy. So far, I am pleased to see that the UK has been the second biggest bilateral donor of aid in the world, second only to America.

But it is vital to emphasise that this is not Iraq in 2003 as many have tried to suggest. We should not allow past mistakes to be used as an excuse for inaction or indifference. We must make decisions based on today’s facts – not yesterday’s mistakes. Furthermore it is crucial to emphasise that these airstrikes will only be targeting Daesh and avoiding any civilian casualties. Quite rightly, many have raised this as a real concern and I am glad that the Prime Minister has emphasised our high precision striking capability which will make civilian casualties exceptionally unlikely. This has already been demonstrated in Iraq where there have been zero civilian casualties from British airstrikes since they began fifteen months ago.

So whilst we have not caused this conflict, we have to address it. Our national security is at risk and an attack against our country is highly likely. We cannot sit back and wait for terrorists to attack us.