Foreign affairs minister Frans Timmermans has caved into pressure from MPs and will brief the parliamentary foreign affairs committee on secret information about Syria after all.

On Wednesday the minister said there would be no more confidential meetings about the use of chemical weapons in Syria after information from the first one was leaked.

Following cross-party protests, Timmermans has now agreed to hold part of Thursday’s briefing in private, so MPs can ask specific questions.

Timmermans has also admitted he was over-hasty in his statement and that no confidential information was leaked.