The Chipping Barnet (north London) Conservative MP Theresa Villiers took the opportunity to ask the Minister for Europe Sir Alan Duncan whether the UK would “make representations to the Turkish Foreign Minister to ask the Turkish navy to cease obstructing vessels seeking to extract hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Sir Alan Duncan responded: “I understand the issue to which my RH Friend refers, which is the issue of drilling for oil and gas on the edge of Cyprus; and we are assessing what has been reported over the last days or so on what exactly is happening in that area.”