Results 1-20 of 177 for iraq speaker:Gordon Brown

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (3 Feb 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: ...welcome the opportunity to speak to the Chilcot inquiry, but the right hon. Gentleman must know that defence spending rose every year, with the fastest rises for 20 years, and that our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan received £14 billion from the contingency reserve to enable the fighting there to take place. Not only did we prepare the Army, Navy and Air Force with proper funding; we...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (3 Feb 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: ...to cut defence expenditure by £1.5 billion. We continued to increase the defence budget every year and we made every urgent operational requirement that was necessary for Her Majesty's forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. That has included £14 billion of extra expenditure from the reserve. Expenditure on Afghanistan was £600 million a few years ago. It will be £3.5 billion...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (3 Feb 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: I have to report to the House that defence spending was rising every year during that period. It was rising in real terms, and no one has doubted that every aspect of Iraq and Afghanistan was funded. I repeat that it was the Conservative party that went into the last election wanting to cut defence expenditure.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (3 Feb 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: ...every year in real terms, and that they were the biggest rises for 20 years. The figures also show that every single urgent operational requirement that the Ministry of Defence asked of us for Iraq and Afghanistan has been met. I am afraid it is the Opposition who are having difficulty with figures at the moment.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (13 Jan 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: ...the one who wanted Chilcot to make the decisions about whom he called. He cannot on one day say that Chilcot should decide and then say that he or someone else should decide what happens. On the Iraq war, we have given every single document to the Iraq inquiry. We have given it the opportunity to look at every document and to ask for which documents it wants to be declassified. The only...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (13 Jan 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: I praise Blackpool for hosting the first Armed Forces Veterans day. I know that Blackpool has lost soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and my hon. Friend is right to say that we must commemorate all those who have served and made sacrifices for our country. I share his views on extremists who use freedom of speech in our country to foster division and incite hatred and, in some cases, to incite...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (13 Jan 2010) has video

Gordon Brown: I have already said that the reconstruction that was done after the war effort in Iraq was insufficient; the general view held by many people who have looked into this is that insufficient preparations were made for that. But I was part of the Cabinet that made the decisions on Iraq, and I stand by the decisions we made.

Written Answers — Prime Minister: Iraq Committee of Inquiry (7 Jan 2010)

Gordon Brown: I will continue to take forward the Government's policy in Iraq. As to the inquiry, it continues to sit and will hear evidence and then make its report.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Afghanistan and the EU Council (14 Dec 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...assure the right hon. Gentleman that President Karzai is determined to come to London with a plan to deal with some of the problems in Afghanistan that have been intractable over many years. As for Iraq, there is an inquiry sitting. The inquiry will hear evidence and then make its report. As far as climate change is concerned, there is a European offer of 20 per cent., to go to 30 per...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Afghanistan and the EU Council (14 Dec 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...real-terms rises to defence of nearly 10 per cent. over the past 10 years. In addition to that, we have provided for the equipment needs and the other additional needs associated with the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is because we announced additional money from the Treasury reserve to pay for new equipment that the Mastiffs and the Ridgbacks are going into Afghanistan as...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Afghanistan and the EU Council (14 Dec 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: I think the hon. Gentleman has got to understand that the total amount of additional public expenditure-on top of the defence budget-in Iraq and Afghanistan is £14 billion. That is on top of the defence budget; that is additional to a rising defence budget. I think he has got to understand also the scale of the investment that we have made in equipment, which is in the order of £5...

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Afghanistan and the EU Council (14 Dec 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: I did not answer the question because this is a statement on the European Council and on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an inquiry has been set up to look at all the issues affecting Iraq.

Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department: Afghanistan and the EU Council (14 Dec 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...in real terms by 10 per cent. since 1997. I keep repeating to the hon. Gentleman that the urgent operational requirements of our defence forces when they are in action abroad, as they have been in Iraq and Afghanistan, are met by separate claims from the reserves. I think he should look at the arithmetic of what has actually happened, and he will see that extra urgent operational...

Written Answers — Prime Minister: Iraq Committee of Inquiry (12 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: I refer the hon. Member to the statement I gave to the House on 15 June 2009 Official Report, column 21, in which I announced the establishment of the Iraq Inquiry. It is for the Chair of the Iraq Inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, in consultation with the other Inquiry Committee members, to decide which specific areas to focus on within their overall remit.

Written Answers — Prime Minister: Iraq Committee of Inquiry (19 Oct 2009)

Gordon Brown: The Iraq inquiry will make announcements in due course about the hearings it will conduct and which witnesses will appear. In the event serving Ministers or Government officials are called, the Government reiterate their commitment to co-operate fully with the inquiry.

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Afghanistan and Pakistan (14 Oct 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...central element of the work that we are doing. The Foreign Secretary emphasised that in a speech only a few weeks ago. The importance of it has led General Lamb, who acted with great distinction in Iraq, to go to work with General McChrystal on the very process of reintegration and splitting the Taliban. There are Pashtun nationalists, people hired for a dollar or two a day, young people...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Afghanistan and Pakistan (14 Oct 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: First, Afghanistan is very different from Iraq. Secondly, the right hon. Gentleman should accept that the figures I have given for the army are the increase in numbers over the next year—from 90,000 to 134,000. That is not necessarily the limit on the numbers that will be placed in the Afghan army or the limit of our ability to train members of the Afghan army. I have already given a...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (15 Jul 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...Monday to see the Merlin helicopters that will be deployed in the field by the end of the year, and the training is being done immediately in America— [Interruption.] Look, as they move from Iraq to Afghanistan—I need to explain this—those helicopters are dealing with different terrain. They have to re-equipped for the functions in Afghanistan, where they have to deal...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (15 Jul 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...programme, we have experienced the longest sustainable increase in defence spending in any period over 20 years. The reason is that, in addition to the defence budget, £14 billion has been spent on Iraq and Afghanistan, and £4 billion of that has been spent on urgent operational requirements for the troops. Part of the spending is on helicopters, and we have now committed £6...

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (15 Jul 2009) has video

Gordon Brown: ...the operational capability of helicopters and if we were not putting more helicopters in the field as soon as we can. I have to insist that the terrain in Afghanistan is different from that in Iraq, and that is why we have to re-equip the helicopters with new blades, as well as retraining our servicemen to deal with those problems. I hope that the Conservative party will come to accept...