Afghanistan on agenda for PM grilling
Afghanistan to dominate Gordon Brown's twice-yearly grilling in front of House of Commons liaison committee
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Thursday, 16, Jul 2009 02:01
Afghanistan is expected to dominate all aspects of Gordon Brown's twice-yearly grilling by some of the most influential MPs in Westminster.
The prime minister will appear today in front of the House of Commons liaison committee, which is traditionally taken up by the issues of the day rather than the previous six months.
The session, which starts at 10:00 BST and is expected to last for two hours, is the biennial chance for the chairmen of the Commons select committees to hold the prime minister to task.
"What's so good about them is that they are so wide-ranging," Alex Stevenson, deputy editor of politics.co.uk, said.
"Getting all these parliamentary chairmen in one room is quite a stellar event in Westminster."
Each chairman is expected to be given ten minutes on their brief, but most are expected to stray into the war in Afghanistan.
The issue dominated the exchanges between Mr Brown and David Cameron at prime minister's questions yesterday.
"We have to be frank about the dangers and difficulties in Afghanistan and one of the difficulties is a shortage of helicopters," Conservative leader Mr Cameron said, accusing the prime minister of ordering cuts to spending on helicopters.
But Mr Brown hit back, insisting the government was doing "everything it could" to give the troops on the ground the best possible equipment.
"I believe we are making the provision necessary for helicopters and equipment on the ground," he added.
In the last seven years 184 British soldiers have died in Afghanistan, meaning the conflict has had a greater toll on the UK army than the Iraq war.