Armed Forces Bill

May I first, for the benefit of the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones), clarify the position as I see it on the Liberal Democrat Benches? We will support the Minister on this issue because we believe that it is the only sensible way that any military force, which is made up of volunteers, can operate. That is not ambiguous. It is not open to contradiction. It is crystal clear where we stand on the issue. I congratulate the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Simon). He made the point that a war, or action by our armed forces, is legal when this place—the House—accepts a proposition that we should send our armed forces into harm’s way to fight on our behalf. They then have a clear, legitimate duty to uphold what they have signed up to do, which is to fight on our behalf, following a request from a democratically elected Government. Others, me included, may feel that the Government misled the nation on the pretext for going to war. However, that does not excuse members of the armed forces from obeying a direct order from Parliament that puts them in harm’s way." The hon. Gentleman is missing the point. The decision to deploy British troops is made under the royal prerogative. Parliament was consulted by the Prime Minister before we went into what I believe to be an illegal war in Iraq. Surely the issue is the legality in international law, which has not been argued for and has not been sustained in the case of Iraq."