Foreign Affairs Committee
Oral evidence: The situation in Iran and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s response, HC 928
Tuesday 6 December 2022
Ordered by the House of Commons to be published on 6 December 2022.
Members present: Alicia Kearns (Chair); Saqib Bhatti; Chris Bryant; Neil Coyle; Henry Smith; Royston Smith.
Chair: This is a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I am going to give a statement regarding today’s session.
The Committee had planned this evidence session to shine a light on our previous report on Iran, in 2020, and to talk about Iran’s nuclear programme, the brave protests taking place in Iran, and the foreign policy implications of current events in that country. We were due to hear from experts on these subjects in advance of the evidence session with Lord Ahmad. Regrettably, we have had no choice but to postpone the planned first panel.
As Chair of the Committee, I am absolutely determined for us to hear diverse views and diverse people’s voices. A range of people and experts will bring different perspectives, so that we can work out what the right policies should be for the British Government. Our choice of witnesses does not indicate the Committee’s position on any given topic. We seek to learn from our witnesses. It is absolutely right that we test their arguments and their evidence in public; that is how public scrutiny works in a properly functioning parliamentary democracy.
The response to the announcement on social media of one of our witnesses sent by email to us as members of the Committee was completely unacceptable. We will not tolerate any concerted attempt by state or non-state actors to undermine, discredit or cancel a witness we have invited to give evidence. Any such attempt will fail and is counterproductive. So rather than hear only one perspective on events in Iran, including the human rights situation there, we will, regrettably, hear from none. Instead, we will take evidence from the Minister responsible at the Foreign Office and hear from his officials, and we will do so in private in order to avoid heightening the security risk. Let me be crystal clear: our witnesses were not cancelled, and the intimidation of any of our witnesses is utterly unacceptable; it may also be a contempt of the House.
We thank the Minister and his officials for coming to the Committee today. We are very concerned about the situation in Iran and we look forward to hearing more from the Minister. When the orchestrated flood of emails and intimidation subsides, we will seek to return to this extremely important issue, but the security of witnesses and my Committee will always come first, and I will never allow anything to stand in the way of that.
That concludes the public part of the session.