Julian Lewis MP: The Government mustn't arm Syria's opposition behind Parliament's back

Julian Lewis was a Shadow Defence Minister between 2002 and 2010 and is MP for New Forest East

Asked about arming the Syrian opposition this week, David Cameron reminded the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions of his record of “making sure that Parliament is recalled to discuss important issues”. This is the closest he has come to promising a vote on the matter, but he would be wise to make it explicit.

Intervention in this dreadful civil war would be fraught with danger. Consider four facts:

First, there is a stock of deadly nerve gas, believed to be sarin, under Assad’s control – where it poses little danger to the West.

Secondly, it is our overriding priority to keep mass-destruction weapons (like sarin nerve gas) out of Al-Qaeda’s hands.

Thirdly, according to the Foreign Secretary, Al-Qaeda have several thousand jihadis fighting alongside the opposition to Assad.

Finally, if Assad falls, his WMD arsenal will be seized by the opposition forces.

Julian Lewis: Why we still need the bomb

Last week Tim Montgomerie floated the idea that Trident might now be too expensive for Britain. Yesterday Gordon Brown suggested that Britain's nuclear deterrent could be part of a multilateral agreement on disarmament. Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East, and shadow defence minister responsible for the nuclear deterrent argues that Britain still needs Trident.

These are very tough times for British defence planners. Years before the present economic crisis, the United Kingdom was fighting military campaigns on a peacetime Defence Budget. Increasingly this has led to inter-Service warfare for inadequate resources.

Yet, the case for retaining our nuclear deterrent is common ground between Government and Opposition, and attempts to revive unilateralism have failed to generate significant support, regardless of the end of the Cold War. This is due to a mixture of military and political factors.

Julian Lewis MP: An update on how the News of the World smeared me - and the role of Lib Dem MP Norman Baker in endorsing it

Julian Lewis is MP for New Forest East and updates readers on developments since the News of the World published a story about his use of housing allowances this time last week.

Last Sunday, ConservativeHome did me an enormous service by enabling me to rebut in detail a scurrilous and inaccurate attack by the News of the World before many people had even seen it. Since then, there have been a couple of interesting developments.

The whole story hinged on claims that “locals say [I] am HARDLY THERE” – “THERE” being the house in my constituency where I have lived continuously since 1998 except when in my London flat. Although the newspaper was apparently obliged by its own lawyers to state “There is no suggestion Lewis has broken any rules”, it reiterated that I “milk” my allowance by nominating my house (rather than my London flat) as my “main” home, and alleged that I “hardly visit” it. Supposedly, “neighbours say most of the week [I am] not there”.

Julian Lewis MP rebuts this morning's News of the World report questioning his use of Commons housing allowances

Julian Lewis is Conservative MP for New Forest East and was the subject of a piece in this morning's News of the World, questioning his use of parliamentary housing allowances. He responds to that report here.

Quite early on Friday morning, I looked out of my bedroom window in New Forest East and saw a photographer standing in the middle of the road taking picture after picture of the front of my home. This caused me concern.

For many years, both before and after becoming an MP, I have been involved in work against political extremists at home and abroad. As a basic security precaution, I have never publicly disclosed where I live, but have always registered to vote under a nom de plume, by arrangement with the relevant local councils. More recently, the Chief Constable of Hampshire has authorised the process of ‘anonymous registration’ – so that my name doesn’t appear anywhere on the electoral register.

The photographer was from a local picture agency and, through them, I was directed to the picture-desk of the News of the World who, in turn, gave me the name of Jamie Lyons – a political reporter whom I understand to be accredited to the Commons press gallery. Eventually I succeeded in getting hold of him and we had a long conversation – initiated by me, and ended by him – in which it became clear that I was dealing with someone determined to write a hostile story.

Curiously, although the reporter had evidently been working on it for some time and could have sought to interview me easily in the Commons, he had made no approach to me at all until I discovered what he was up to and called him the day before his Saturday deadline. This did not bode well for a fair or objective piece of reporting.

The resultant concoction of half-truths and total distortions is published today, and I must say that being attacked – falsely – for sleaze by this particular tabloid does seem to me like a contradiction in terms.