RISING

Tory MP Tom Tugendhat’s election as chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee has been hailed by the Financial Times as a triumph for moderation. I fundamentally disagree. Yes, the ambitious former soldier has a bright future. But his views make him totally the wrong person to head such an influential committee. He criticised President Obama’s admirable deal for nuclear peace with Iran. He opposed British support for the UN vote condemning Israel’s settlement programme in the West Bank. He supported Western military intervention in Syria. And he is ambiguous about Saudi Arabia’s murderous campaign of bombing in Yemen (though, to be fair, he has expressed reservations about some of the methods). By calling Mr Tugendhat a moderate, the implication is that his predecessor as committee chairman, Crispin Blunt, is an extremist. In fact, Mr Blunt was widely admired for holding the Foreign Office to account whenever it failed. I fear Mr Tugendhat owes his job to backers of the Iraq War. He has a big challenge to prove he is not a Cabinet stooge.