Hoon urges conference to vote against Iraq withdrawal
The Secretary of State for Defence has urged the Labour Party conference not to vote for the withdrawal of UK troops.
His comments were backed in the hall later by the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
In his speech to the Labour Party conference, Geoff Hoon said that the UK should remain in Iraq until the “job is done”.
He told the conference that during a recent visit to Basra he saw “our excellent training facilities” for Iraqi security forces, and how Britain’s armed forces were improving the lives of the Iraqi people.
Whilst he acknowledged the view of those that opposed the war, and said he respected their views, he called on everyone to work to defeat terrorism.
Mr Hoon told the conference that the people of Iraq could not be abandoned now, stated: “We must stay the course and see the job through”.
Highlighting the dangers posed by international terrorism, ranging from the attacks on America on September 11th 2001 to the recent attack on a school in Beslan, saying that each new atrocity served to remind us that the threat of international terrorism was still a threat to the people of the UK and to our democracy. This was why the Government was standing up for Britain.
Earlier, the Secretary of State for Overseas Development Hilary Benn has told the Labour Party conference that the UK will use its presidency of the G8 and EU to show that global politics can make a difference.
Mr Benn told delegates that with the world becoming increasingly interdependent, international development is essential to build a safe and secure world in the years ahead.
He argued that those who turned their backs on the rest of the world have nothing to offer us as we continued our journey through the 21st century.
Darfur, he said, is the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, and said that the real challenge for the world is to prevent crisis from happening in the future.
