Mr. Stephen Kelly:

Yes, it will fundamentally change it because it will mean that any mission we have been invited to take part in, that we have not taken part in to date because of the triple lock, we could take part in.

That was the case with the Iraq War, as Ms Bernie Maguire confirmed on the first day. In the case of Iraq, the UK self-certified that it complied with international law. The British Attorney General was pressured to provide legal advice saying that, which I have explained in our submission in some detail.

The real concern with any possible war-fighting force we could take part in is the possibility of direct confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia. The European Commission's White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030 identified Russia as being the key threat. That is consistent with the rhetoric that has emanated from numerous EU figures and is the key factor behind this drive to accelerate EU militarisation. Everything in the EU's White Paper is consistent with that. Among other things, it calls for the acquisition of capabilities for high-intensity warfare. That is not a peacekeeping mission where one is simply playing a supervisory role. It is high-intensity warfare, like is seen in Ukraine. It is about having the capacity to make deep precision strikes in enemy territory, which is, again, clearly targeted at a country like Russia, with a vast landmass. That would be the biggest concern and it is a realistic concern because of, for example, EU leaders such as President Macron calling for direct deployment to Ukraine and Sir Keir Starmer's coalition of the willing.