Gordon Brown, who will become British Prime Minister in just two weeks and one day's time, has said that he will NOT cut and run from Iraq by bringing out British soldiers too soon....
Salute ... Gordon Brown, who will become Britain's Prime Minister in 15 days' time, meets
British soldiers in Baghdad
Gord: No early exit from Iraq
By MICHAEL LEA
Political Correspondent
June 12, 2007
The Sun
GORDON Brown flew to Baghdad yesterday and vowed Britain will NOT cut and run from Iraq when he becomes PM.
The Prime Minister-in-waiting will stick to Tony Blair’s timetable for withdrawing our troops.
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki revealed after meeting Mr Brown and Defence Secretary Des Browne: “We wanted to be clear on everything concerning whether Britain wants to pull out.
“They said they will not pull out before discussing it with us and we are all agreed on a replacement solution for the security process.”
He confirmed he was satisfied Mr Brown “will follow the policy of Tony Blair”.
Yesterday Mr Brown heaped praise on Our Boys — then dodged an al-Qaeda rocket attack. He met frontline soldiers and hailed their “tremendous dedication and duty”.
Mr Brown said: “We have got armed forces who are doing an absolutely brilliant job.”
The Chancellor and Mr Browne were visiting Baghdad’s heavily-guarded Green Zone when it came under attack. Neither was injured.
Mr Brown will face huge pressure to pull our troops out when he wins the keys to No10 in two weeks.
But he is determined not to withdraw UK forces while they can still help stabilise Basra and the south.
His pledge came as the PM suffered a final backbench revolt yesterday.
The Government’s majority was nearly halved to 35 as it fought off a Tory call for an inquiry into the Iraq war.
The motion was rejected by 288 votes to 253.
Earlier, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Commons: “This Government and future governments need to learn the lessons.”
But Mr Brown dismissed the demand, saying: “The wrong time to even consider an inquiry is when you have to give all your effort to consider your troops on the ground.”
He vowed to step up efforts to rejuvenate Iraq’s economy, security and democracy.
Mr Brown also promised to tighten procedures around intelligence gathering, seen as a swipe at the “dodgy dossiers” studied by Mr Blair.
He also announced a 3.6 per cent rise in the allowance for troops deployed for six months to Iraq and Afghanistan. It will go up from £2,240 to £2,320, backdated to April 1.
thesun.co.uk
Salute ... Gordon Brown, who will become Britain's Prime Minister in 15 days' time, meets
British soldiers in Baghdad
Gord: No early exit from Iraq
By MICHAEL LEA
Political Correspondent
June 12, 2007
The Sun
GORDON Brown flew to Baghdad yesterday and vowed Britain will NOT cut and run from Iraq when he becomes PM.
The Prime Minister-in-waiting will stick to Tony Blair’s timetable for withdrawing our troops.
Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki revealed after meeting Mr Brown and Defence Secretary Des Browne: “We wanted to be clear on everything concerning whether Britain wants to pull out.
“They said they will not pull out before discussing it with us and we are all agreed on a replacement solution for the security process.”
He confirmed he was satisfied Mr Brown “will follow the policy of Tony Blair”.
Yesterday Mr Brown heaped praise on Our Boys — then dodged an al-Qaeda rocket attack. He met frontline soldiers and hailed their “tremendous dedication and duty”.
Mr Brown said: “We have got armed forces who are doing an absolutely brilliant job.”
The Chancellor and Mr Browne were visiting Baghdad’s heavily-guarded Green Zone when it came under attack. Neither was injured.
Mr Brown will face huge pressure to pull our troops out when he wins the keys to No10 in two weeks.
But he is determined not to withdraw UK forces while they can still help stabilise Basra and the south.
His pledge came as the PM suffered a final backbench revolt yesterday.
The Government’s majority was nearly halved to 35 as it fought off a Tory call for an inquiry into the Iraq war.
The motion was rejected by 288 votes to 253.
Earlier, Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Commons: “This Government and future governments need to learn the lessons.”
But Mr Brown dismissed the demand, saying: “The wrong time to even consider an inquiry is when you have to give all your effort to consider your troops on the ground.”
He vowed to step up efforts to rejuvenate Iraq’s economy, security and democracy.
Mr Brown also promised to tighten procedures around intelligence gathering, seen as a swipe at the “dodgy dossiers” studied by Mr Blair.
He also announced a 3.6 per cent rise in the allowance for troops deployed for six months to Iraq and Afghanistan. It will go up from £2,240 to £2,320, backdated to April 1.
thesun.co.uk