Last Friday the House of Commons debated government strategy on IS. Stephen Pound MP (Ealing North) (Lab) asked the minister if the UK was willing to support the creation of a safe haven for persecuted minorities from Iraq.

Mr Lidington replied that the Government was committed to doing everything that it could to safeguard the position of Christian and other minorities in Iraq, and that the best and most rapid way to do that was to re-establish the authority of the legitimate Iraqi government over the area now being terrorised by Islamic State fighters. He further elaborated by stating that the Iraqi government and Kurdish ground forces were now beginning to reclaim ground from the Islamic State, and that the British government was committed to supporting this offensive.