Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to Boris Johnson’s remarks about Saudi Arabia’s support for proxy wars in the Middle East, said: 

“For months, Labour has been arguing that what last year began as a UN-backed attempt to restore the government of Yemen has now descended into a brutal and indiscriminate proxy war, and a desperate humanitarian crisis, with the lives of hundreds of thousands of children at risk.

"That argument has consistently been rejected by Boris Johnson in the House of Commons, but now these remarks in Italy have shown us what he really thinks.

"If that is his genuine view, he needs to explain why he ordered his MPs to vote against Labour’s calls in October to suspend support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, until a lasting ceasefire has been brokered and until alleged violations of international humanitarian law have been properly investigated.

"The government cannot complain about Saudi Arabia’s military actions one minute, then continue selling it the arms to prosecute those actions the next. We need to see some consistent principle in the UK’s foreign policy, not more shabby hypocrisy.”