The UK welcomes reports the Assad regime has fallen in Syria, Angela Rayner has said.
The British Government had been working to evacuate UK citizens before the situation reached a crisis point, the Deputy Prime Minister added.
Overnight on Sunday, a lightning rebel offensive seized control of Damascus, the Syrian capital, and president Bashar Assad is reported to have fled.
The situation is “fast-moving”, the Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, amid reports of the Syrian leader’s escape.
Speaking to Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said: “If (the) Assad regime has fallen, then I welcome that news, but what we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions.
“We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected, far too many people have lost their lives, we need stability in that region.”
She did not say how many British nationals are in Syria, but said the Foreign Office had been working over the weekend to help them leave.
She added: “We’ve had a plan to ensure that people were evacuated ahead of what’s happened over the weekend, and we continue to support our UK nationals.”
Ms Rayner later said Mr Assad “wasn’t exactly good to the Syrian people”, before adding: “Dictatorship and terrorism creates problems for the people of Syria, who have faced so much already and also destabilises the region.
“That’s why we have to have a political solution where the government is acting in the interests of the Syrian people.”
