Watch live as David Lammy delivers a statement in Parliament on Monday, 9 December, after Syria’s brutal Assad regime came to an end.
Syrians are celebrating the demise of Bashar al-Assad’s government after 13 years of civil war sparked by the president’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters following the Arab Spring.
A rebel coalition took control of the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive overnight on Sunday, 11 days after launching a major operation.
Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the end of Assad’s “barbaric regime.”
Russia, a close ally that has propped up the regime for years, said Assad left the country after negotiations with rebel groups and had given instructions to transfer power peacefully.
Late on Sunday, Russian state media said Assad and his family had been granted asylum and were in Moscow.
Labour minister Pat McFadden said the UK government will make a swift decision on whether to lift the ban on the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) after it ousted Assad’s regime.
HTS is banned in the UK because of its past association with al Qaida, the terrorist organisation once led by Osama bin Laden.
Speaking to Mishal Husain on BBC Radio 4 on Monday (9 December), the cabinet minister said “the situation is very fluid” but he hoped if there was a need to hold talks with HTS “it should be a relatively swift decision”.
