I accept that it was a mistake to allow distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend. Mr Speaker, I am sorry for this. I have apologised to the Prime Minister, to the public, and, at the first opportunity available, to the House.

New Labour was the most short-sighted, self-serving, incompetent, useless, and ineffective government that Britain has ever known.

But while we can never predict where events will take us or the unavoidable bills we will have to pay as a consequence, we must confront the ghastly truth of Labour's legacy.

We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened.

I felt it was vital to stress the importance of national security in this debate and the need for a clear path to our exit from the European Union. I hope I have achieved both these objectives.

For those of us on that Leave side there is a natural credibility with those voters.

I have decided to give my support to Theresa May. I intend to work closely with her, to campaign for her and I'm sure she'll be a very fine prime minister of this country.