Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 2:23 pm on 23 November 2022.
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am not going to withdraw the comments that I made in my question, because—[Interruption.] I will explain why, if colleagues would like to listen. In my question, which Mrs Elphicke quoted, I said:
“New evidence suggests that the boat reached British waters and that the French and British authorities knew that it was in distress for a very long time.”
The bodies and the survivors were not found until 2 pm the next day. By my judgment, that is a long time for both the British and the French authorities to know about people in distress. Something had obviously not happened. We need the investigation to conclude, but everything from the French investigation side and in leaked reports is in the public domain; it has been reported by Le Monde, by The Guardian and by many newspapers. I think that the hon. Member has misinterpreted what I said.