Armed Forces Bill

No one in the international community has made the case that the action taken, with which I did not agree, was illegal. Kofi Annan and others have voiced their opinion, but it is simply an opinion. The Chamber voted, against my wishes, to send our armed forces into harm’s way, and they have served with credit to themselves and to the nation. The hon. Members for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) and for Newark (Patrick Mercer) spoke with great eloquence about the issues. It is not a question of whether or not a life sentence should be imposed for desertion. I should like to know whether the Members who support the amendment know how many members of the armed forces in the past 25 years have stood trial for desertion, how many have been sentenced to life imprisonment and how many have served more than 10 years in prison for the act of desertion. Not a single Member has told us the answer. Can the Minister tell the House how many of the 250,000 people who have served in our armed forces since we invaded Iraq have cited as their reason for leaving disquiet and discomfort at what they consider to be the illegal actions they were asked to carry out? The House would be interested to know whether there is any evidence to support the claim that a huge phalanx of people have left the Army because they did not like what they were asked to do in Iraq. There are many reasons to be critical of the Government’s actions, but I cannot find any in this case.