A new paper from Policy Exchange calls for the Government to withdraw from the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines – arguing that both now serve as an impediment to greater allied security against Russian aggression. After a number of our NATO allies in eastern and north-eastern Europe have recently signalled their intent to pull out, the UK must show solidarity with these front-line states by doing the same.

This vital intervention is backed by Rt Hon Sir Ben Wallace KCB, former Defence Secretary and Security Minister. He writes in a Foreword that “… from my time as Secretary of State for Defence, I have first-hand experience of how the Ottawa Treaty prevented us and others from helping Ukraine. I was beset by lawyers applying old and out of date treaties to new capabilities which are vital to saving life and to countering Russian lethality.”