The following article was written by Lord William Wallace and published yesterday on the Liberal Democrat Voice Website.

Part of our role in both houses of Parliament is to hold the government to the commitments they – often reluctantly – give.  One of the five conditions Lib Dem parliamentarians established in return for supporting the extensions of air operations over Iraq to Syria was that the government should set up an enquiry into sources of funding for extremist versions of Islam within the UK. Alastair Carmichael in the Commons, and myself in the Lords, are holding the Conservatives to the promise they made to report on this by ‘the Spring of 2016’. Alastair has pressed ministers on the size and quality of the ‘Extremism Analysis Unit’ set up in the Home Office to cover this. I asked an oral question in the Lords yesterday (February 3rd) on how thoroughly overseas funding will be investigated, from both foreign government and from private sources. In both cases, the answers have been that the government is acting on this commitment, but there are clear reasons why we should continue to put pressure on them to deliver.

We found when in coalition that there were many Conservatives who were far too close to the Gulf monarchies and their royal families. Some had met Arab princes as fellow-cadets at Sandhurst or Cranwell; others meet them while racing at Ascot or Newmarket, or in weekend parties in Surrey or the Cotswolds. Conservative ministers were determined to compete with the French in selling more arms to these already well-supplied monarchies – above all, hoping against hope to sell the Typhoon fighter aircraft in competition with the French Rafale. David Cameron was reported to have frequent phone conversations with leading Gulf princes; his unilateral decision to set up an enquiry into the Muslim Brotherhood was apparently in response to a personal request from one of these. Behind the scenes in government, and openly now back in opposition, we have attacked the Conservatives for their uncritical support for the Saudi royal family and the Gulf monarchies, with the dangers that the UK will end up supporting hard-line Sunni authoritarianism against both political reform and Shia communities across the Middle East.

Britain should be supporting reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and moves towards reform in the authoritarian Sunni states. We all recognise that developments across the Middle East spill over into Europe and into Britain. How we behave towards these royal families, with their direct links into British society and the British economy, has implications for social integration here as well as for the containment of conflicts there. I believe that this report will shed some light on some of these links and help reform our approach. I also note that the Foreign Affairs select committee has launched an inquiry into ISIL’s sources of funding, which will helpfully complement the government’s UK based investigation.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.