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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

Sakea Stama used a news conference in Downing Street on Thursday, the 5th of March,

to reject criticism of his response to the war in the Middle East.

In the Commons, ministers defended the

decision not to join the attacks on Iran. Who had the final say on whether or not the US

could use British military bases for the initial strikes on Iran? It is now reported with

some authority across the newspapers that the Prime Minister was actually minded to support the US attack on Friday evening.

That was the Conservative shadow leader of the Commons, Jesse Norman.

And was forced to back down by a group of ministers, including the Home Secretary, the Foreign Secretary and, yes, the Energy Secretary.

He was talking about a report in this week's Spectator magazine,

which suggested that Secure Stama had faced opposition from Ed Miliband and other ministers.

Downing Street has denied reports that the Cabinet changed the Prime Minister's position.

The leader of the Commons is Sir Alan Campbell.

I would discourage people from speculating about some of the things that might be read in newspapers because it's far better to read or remember what the Prime Minister said in a very long statement on

Monday

when he set out

in over two and a half hours of questioning,

he set out exactly what the government's position is.

Later, a Foreign Office Minister, Hamish Faulkner, warned MPs this crisis could last months.

He said the UK was not taking military action against Iran,

but was supporting its allies in the region.

...