The whole world should be deeply troubled by the massacres that took place in Syria over the past weekend. I raised this in the House today when the Government gave a ministerial statement on Syria.

The Christian community in Syria is one of the oldest in the world. Up to the civil war, it was about ten per cent of the population; now, it is down to two per cent.

The excellent charity Aid to the Church in Need tells me that one of their contacts on the ground described Friday as a “black and painful day” for Christians and Alawites in the Latakia area, with people being murdered in their cars and in their homes.

I urged the Minister — representing, as he does, a Christian country — to call out the new Sunni Muslim Government of Syria and say that they have an absolute duty of care to all minorities: Christians, Druze, Alawites or others.