Sudan

Chris Law Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this. We have had discussions with a number of bilateral partners both in the region and outside it. In fact, I discussed this with the USAID administrator last week when I was at the World Bank annuals, but we have of course had a number of discussions with regional actors as well—particularly countries in the Gulf, but beyond that as well. We know that many of them have relationships with individuals in Sudan, and we are really pushing for those to be used so that we see the aid delivery that is so desperately needed.

[Chris Law (Dundee Central) (SNP)]

The UN Secretary-General warned yesterday that

“outside powers are fuelling the fire”,

and intensifying the nightmare of hunger and disease for millions of people in Sudan. The Minister has previously stated:

“The UK could not be clearer in our language.”—[Official Report, 3 September 2024; Vol. 753, c. 166.]

She has said that those engaged in this conflict and enabling a proxy situation are exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. What precise actions are the UK Government taking to prevent this involvement and to stop arms reaching the conflict zones?

International Engagement

Chris Law Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important subject. Globally, an enormous amount of growth could be unlocked by increasing women’s economic opportunities. The World Bank has estimated that about 20% could be added to global GDP if women were able to work more and their pay was more reflective of men’s pay. The UK Government have been working closely on this issue with many partners, including the World Bank. We are very pleased to be seeing progress, particularly around supporting women entrepreneurs and ensuring that women’s economic empowerment is viewed as the ticket to progress and prosperity that it so often can be.

[Chris Law (Dundee Central) (SNP)]

I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement. I want to raise a couple of points. First, it is only a few years ago that the Foreign Secretary said:

“We don’t just want an apology, we want reparations and compensation.”

Last week, however, the Prime Minister could not even bring himself to make a formal apology, so I hope the Minister can bring herself to do so today.

Secondly, the Minister said that

“at home and around the world…Britain is back”.

There are two reasons for that: first, there was a reduction in ODA spend to 0.5% of GNI; and, secondly, there was the merger of the Department for International Development, which is in East Kilbride in Scotland. Will there be a return to a separate Department, and how soon does she predict that we will return to spending 0.7% of GNI?

[Anneliese Dodds]

The hon. Gentleman asks a number of questions, and I will try to cover them as quickly as I can. The new Government are very clear that the slave trade was abhorrent. We condemn it, just as previous Labour Governments did. It is important that we start from there, but it is also important that we are just as clear that there has been no change in our policy on reparations. The UK does not pay reparations—we have been very clear about that.

The hon. Gentleman talks about other countries’ confidence in the UK’s leadership on international development. We have to renew that confidence, which is about ensuring that we make a number of changes, as I set out at Chatham House the week before last. That includes ensuring that we work even more closely with Brits who are leading development in different countries around the world, but also that we have genuine partnerships with other countries.

I cannot end my response to the hon. Gentleman without thanking the terrific staff in East Kilbride, who do a wonderful job on international development and on foreign policy more broadly. I take my hat off to them. As a new Minister, I have been very impressed by all those working on these issues for the UK Government.