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Hello there, I'm Alicia McCarthy.

Thanks for downloading the yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Monday the 16th of March, MPs wanted more details about efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,

the crucial shipping lane currently paralysed by the war with Iran. The Strait of Hormuz has

been effectively closed to tankers by the conflict and that in turn has ramped up the price of oil.

Yesterday the Prime Minister said the UK was working with allies to bring together a viable

collective plan to try to get it reopened. In the Commons, the Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Pretty Patel accepted that

wasn't straightforward, but...

Where is this plan and what measures are being considered?

The British public, Mr Speaker, need to know what the government is doing to protect our

economic and national security.

Tankers aren't travelling through the strait for fear of attacks and mines.

Priti Patel wanted to know when UK mine hunters and destroyers would be in the region.

But the Foreign Office Minister, Stephen Doughty, wasn't about to get into the detail.

We're in continued conversations with European allies and with the United States. These questions

are, Mr Speaker, very complex. Any plans must be multilateral, with as many nations as possible

taking part. For the Lib Dems, Callum Miller reckoned the closure of the strait by Iran should

have come as no surprise and said the UK should be taking a lead. Not following Trump like a poodle nor succumbing

to his bullying as the Conservatives and Reform Party have advocated. So can the Minister state what

specific actions the UK is taking with our reliable allies to press the US, Israel and Iran to

scale back hostilities? Stephen Doughty insisted the Prime Minister was taking what he called a clear and level-headed approach.

...