Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Diego Garcians (Surrey)

Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con): I am grateful to my   hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) for allowing me to make a brief contribution, and for his kind words about my debate with the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs yesterday.

Yesterday's reply was extremely disappointing. It did not suggest that the Government were treating the issue with the seriousness and immediacy that it requires. It is a consequence of the Government's Orders in Council, presented in June, that we now face what is potentially an increasingly difficult challenge for local authorities. It is very important for the services required for these people to be established in Mauritius and the Seychelles before they come to the United Kingdom—but if the Government are not going to do that, they really must offer assistance to the local authorities that have to host the people.

There is a clear need for joined-up government. If the hon. Member for Gillingham (Paul Clark) has nothing to offer local authorities this evening, as the Under-Secretary had nothing to offer the people of Diego Garcia and the rest of the Chagos islands yesterday, I must tell him that this will certainly not be the last he has heard of the matter.

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