UK members from the House of Commons questioned the British government about how it handled last week's income tax (IT) raids on the BBC offices in Mumbai and New Delhi. Tuesday afternoon, for just under 20 minutes, Tory MP David Rutley, the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), fielded inquiries from members of a variety of opposition parties as well as his own regarding the raid and India's freedom of expression. The BBC was vigorously supported by Mr. Rutley. “We stand up for the BBC, we fund the BBC, we think the BBC World Service is vitally important,” Mr. Rutley said, adding that the U.K. government wanted the BBC to have the editorial freedom and noting that the BBC criticises the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. “It has that freedom which we believe is vitally important and that freedom is key. We want to be able to communicate the importance of that with our colleagues ... our friends across the world, including the government in India,” he said.