It is a pleasure to speak in this debate on Britain’s role in the world and to follow the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely), who is always such a thoughtful and strategic thinker. I think we all benefit from his thoughts.
The right hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis) recognised his own repetitiveness but certainly gave a thoughtful speech on defence policy and the need to remember that most conflicts that we face and have faced in the past have not been predicted.
My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah) talked passionately about the international history of Newcastle—a city much like Liverpool, where I proudly represent the Liverpool, Walton constituency. She talked about the importance of manufacturing and trade as the UK leaves the European Union, and about next week’s UK-Africa summit and the need for our trade relationship with Africa to be beneficial to African nations.
We have heard some excellent maiden speeches. The hon. Member for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) painted a lovely picture of a historical place in our country but also talked about the people struggling in the constituency that she represents. I enjoyed the returning maiden speech, if I can call it that, by the hon. Member for Meon Valley (Mrs Drummond), who said that she is one of only two Members of this House to be born in Aden. I knew the hon. Member for Stafford (Theo Clarke) before her election through her work at the Coalition for Global Prosperity, so it is a pleasure to see her take her seat. The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) reminded the House of the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Kate Osamor) made a passionate speech in which she described how the world is becoming divided between Steve Bannon’s new world order of bully-boy Presidents and the world that some of us want to see, which is much fairer, tackles the real issues of inequality and poverty, and speaks up for human rights. There were excellent maiden speeches from the hon. Members for Wakefield (Imran Ahmad Khan), for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns) and for Delyn (Rob Roberts). My hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West) set out her views on a foreign policy underpinned by security, trade and human rights and the risks of our leaving some of the security arrangements within the EU.
As we start a new decade and look towards a new era of Britain outside the EU, the big question for us all in this Parliament is what type of country do we want to be on the world stage? Who will our allies and partners be in the months and years to come? Who will we side with? Will we side with human rights abusers, bully-boy Presidents, warmongers and those who seek to wreck our environment, or will we be on the side of international law and human rights, promoting peace and diplomacy? Will we stand alongside people across the globe who are fighting for a more just world, to end global poverty, inequality, conflict and climate catastrophe?
In recent years, I am afraid that this Government have too often put this country on the wrong side of that divide, selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, building friendships with controversial nationalists such as Viktor Orbán, conducting trade talks with the US to sell off our NHS, funding the fossil fuel industry overseas through export finance and UK aid, and failing to condemn President Trump’s dangerous foreign policy decisions—instead inviting him for state visits, with little to say about his Muslim ban, detaining child migrants, threats of nuclear Armageddon, and military interventionism by tweet. Let us remember that it is this US President who turned his back on the Kurds after they fought ISIS in Syria; cut United Nations Relief and Works Agency funding, which supports 5.5 million Palestinian refugees; and is withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement. If we want a stable world, Britain’s leaders must be brave enough to stand up to the reckless actions and rhetoric of all world leaders, whoever they are. If we want lasting peace in the world, we must use diplomacy and speak up for international law. Real strength is standing up for those values.
It was the last Labour Government who established the independent Department for International Development back in 1997. Under this Prime Minister, it seems that barely a week goes by without rumours of DFID shutting, merging, shrinking, folding or being denied its own Secretary of State. Those concerned with the fight against global poverty have spent too much precious time trying to get a simple answer to a simple question, so let me ask it: are this Government committed to an independent Department for International Development with its own Secretary of State and maintaining the UK’s 0.7% commitment on overseas aid? It would be great to get an answer to that question tonight.
As one of the richest countries in the world, there should be no question about our playing a role in fighting the biggest global challenges of our time: unprecedented inequality, with 26 individuals owning the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of humanity; rising global hunger, with 800 million people not having enough food to eat; forced displacement on an unimaginable scale; conflicts with no end in sight; and a catastrophic climate crisis. If we are going to tackle those challenges, there is a lot that Britain needs to do differently on the world stage, from ensuring fairer trade deals, clamping down on global tax-dodging, preventing countries from falling into debt crises and reshaping our relations with countries in the global south so that they are no longer based on the extraction of resources and exploitation of people. Putting those structural issues aside, keeping DFID would be the smallest gesture we can make.
In the Queen’s Speech, we heard about plans to carry out an integrated security, defence and foreign policy review, which will
“reassess the nation’s place in the world, covering....defence to diplomacy and development.”
Can the Minister enlighten us as to when this review will happen, and crucially, will he assure us that a broad range of stakeholders will be involved in the review, including civil society organisations in the UK and those overseas who are impacted by the UK’s international policies?
The UK will host COP26 in Glasgow later this year. It will be a pivotal moment in the fight for climate justice. We welcome the Government’s commitment to binding targets to net zero, and of course we want the Government to go further. These targets mean nothing unless the UK takes swift action now, and there are just 10 short months left until the summit. We must remember that this is not a problem for the future; people across the global south are already suffering the reality of the climate catastrophe. The UK must make serious progress on transforming our own economy and bringing emissions down right away if, as host, we are to lead and persuade others to follow. What exactly will the Government do in the coming months to prove that Britain is serious about cutting emissions, and what exactly will the Prime Minister be doing right away to bring the small subset of obstructive leaders, including President Trump, on board with the world’s climate agreement?
At some point, this House and perhaps a future Government will have to accept that the dominant economic system is broken—a world where 90% of global resources are controlled by a wealthy few, where $1 trillion a year are lost to the global south through illicit financial flows, where global corporations violate human rights and wreck our environment with impunity. The crisis of global poverty and grotesque inequality will not be solved until political leaders find the will to act.
Let me end on a note of caution. Britain’s role in the world has changed enormously in the last 50 years. We were once an empire and now, thankfully, we are not. We can and we must continue to show global leadership, but we must do that by standing true to our values of human rights, diplomacy, international law and social justice, and we must do it through international co-operation and partnership, working within and defending and strengthening international institutions, such as the United Nations, that Britain was at the heart of establishing after the second world war. The coming years are a time to reflect on and reshape Britain’s place and role in the world, not a time for bombast, jingoistic imperialism or, indeed, short-sighted nationalism. The Labour party will always promote real internationalism through co-operation and solidarity.
9.42 pm