{"id":6488,"date":"2026-10-26T00:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T00:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6488"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:44:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:44:28","slug":"falkland-islands-oil-reserves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6488","title":{"rendered":"Falkland Islands Oil Reserves"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6488\" class=\"elementor elementor-6488\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2817923 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"2817923\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-31168b5 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"31168b5\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Sir John challenged the Prime Minister to confirm the Government will oppose Argentina\u2019s efforts to prevent oil exploration authorised by the United Kingdom around the Falkland Islands. Sir John pressed for a firm commitment to defend the UK\u2019s position, drawing attention to concerns over sovereignty and the Government\u2019s approach to the strategically important Chagos Islands. The Prime Minister did reaffirm the Government\u2019s support for the Falkland Islanders\u2019 right to self-determination and for keeping the islands British and Sir John will continue to hold the government to account on this matter.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-da4bc18 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"da4bc18\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-fa52559 elementor-widget elementor-widget-video\" data-id=\"fa52559\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;youtube_url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/youtu.be\\\/qXIQo6voCQU&quot;,&quot;autoplay&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;play_on_mobile&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;mute&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;cc_load_policy&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;,&quot;video_type&quot;:&quot;youtube&quot;,&quot;controls&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"video.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-wrapper elementor-open-inline\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-video\"><\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cb23a5c e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"cb23a5c\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4693d85 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"4693d85\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Debate Highlights<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c178b1b e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"c178b1b\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f6993d6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f6993d6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>John Whittingdale Conservative, Maldon:<\/strong><\/p><p>Unlike the Government\u2019s shameful attempts to hand over the sovereignty of the strategically important Chagos islands, will the Prime Minister confirm that this time the Government will strongly oppose the case being made by the Government of Argentina to the international tribunal to try to stop the exploitation of oil reserves around the Falkland Islands, which is authorised by the United Kingdom?<\/p><p><strong>Andy Burnham Leader of the Labour Party, The Prime Minister:<\/strong><\/p><p>Indeed we will, and I am happy to make that clear again today. We will take the firmest of action to support the Falkland Islands\u2014the right to self-determination of the islanders, who chose to remain British not so long ago. The Defence Secretary has met his counterparts to reiterate that position, and the Foreign Secretary too. I raised the matter with President Trump. There is no diminution in our strong support to keep the Falkland Islands British.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir John challenges the Prime Minister to confirm the Government will oppose Argentina\u2019s attempt to prevent UK-authorised oil exploration around the Falkland Islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speeches"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6488"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6495,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6488\/revisions\/6495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}