Steve Barclay: Ministers must not pursue trade with Qatar at any price When I raised this discrepancy with the Prime Minister, he was "unequivocal" that there should be no differences between American and British sanctions. However, in response to a parliamentary question on 22ndOctober, I was told by the Treasury that, our sanctions replicate those approved by the United Nations or the European Union. Applying a standard set by the UN, and not America, our closest intelligence partner, also raisesquestions over consistency. In other instances our response has been to follow the United States and go further than UN sanctions (in the case of Iran) or apply sanctions where no sanctions at all were agreed on the UN Security Council (in relation to the Ukraine crisis). It is worth contemplating the background of some of these men. According the US Treasury, Ibrahim al-Bakr has since 2012, "worked for al-Qaida and had been responsible for collecting money for both al-Qaida and the Taliban. In this capacity, he served as a link between Gulf-based al-Qaida financiers and Afghanistan. He was arrested in Qatar in the early 2000s for his involvement in a jihadist network, but was subsequently released from prison after he promised not to conduct terrorist activity in Qatar. The UK Treasury confirmed on 24 October that he was not currently subject to any of the financial sanctions regimes that are in operation in the UK. Ministers must now spell out why we have a different regime in place to our closest ally and why we do not see fit to act against individuals suspected of financing the jihadists who are kidnapping and killing our own nationals. There is a further point which calls into question our current approach to sanctions. At present, our asset freeze target list and those subject to a travel ban are not the same. When pressed this week, the Treasury conceded that they did not know where a list of individuals with a travel ban could be found - suggesting the Home or Foreign Office. A lack of co-ordination in Whitehall has therefore led to the extraordinary situation that those suspected of financing terrorism do not appear listed on the UK travel ban list. In a change of policy from the last government, the names on that list are no longer published. The government is committed to tackling the financing of Islamic State. Yet that requires more consistent action in London, and a franker conversation with our trading partner in Qatar. :: Stephen Barclay is the Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire