Emergency debate on Aleppo and Syria

Yesterday the additional business I foreshadowed consisted of an Urgent Question on the so-called ‘Calais Jungle’ and a Statement from the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union updating the House on the progress his department is making. In the Urgent Question I asked the Home Secretary what was being done to stop the Calais camp simply being set up again once the existing one has been cleared by the French authorities. During the Statement the Secretary of State confirmed that in the next Queen’s Speech there will be a Bill to repeal the European Communities Act 1972. I asked whether the Government would be prepared to use the Parliament Act if the Bill is blocked in the House of Lords. The response was that this was a hypothetical question as the situation has not arisen – I hope it never does, but if it does the Government must be prepared to force the Bill onto the Statute Book even without approval from the House of Lords.

Today, the complex humanitarian catastrophe in Syria is to be the subject of an Emergency debate following an application to the Speaker yesterday by the former Secretary of State for International Aid the Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell. I have to attend the first meeting of the new session of the Backbench Business Committee this afternoon.