Pull Troops out of Iraq - Gill

12.21.20am GMT Fri 18th Mar 2005

Ahead of the second anniversary of the start of the conflict this Friday, Parmjit Singh Gill, MP for Leicester South, today called for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the time of the United Nations expiry date set by the last mandate. The mandate expires by the end of December 2005.

This call also comes as the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, signalled that he plans to begin pulling out Italian troops from Iraq in September.

Commenting Parmjit, said,

"With ten countries already having withdrawn their soldiers and another three countries in the process of withdrawing, it is time that Britain set a timetable of when we would pull out.

"Every day more and more Coalition troops are being killed and injured and our presence is not helping.

"We need to make sure that Iraqi soldiers and Police are properly trained but we can not stay there forever. It will only make things worse if we appear to have no time table to leave."

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

1. The news that the Italian Prime Minister plans to begin withdrawing his troops in September was covered by BBC online:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4355009.stm

2. This news comes the day before the second anniversary of the start of the conflict, this Friday. One MP was this week ejected from the House of Commons for refusing to withdraw his accusation that Tony Blair 'misled' the public over Iraq.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4358313.stm