UK-Mauritius Agreement on the Chagos Archipelago

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 30th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the Motion in the name of my noble and learned friend Lord Goldsmith and thank him for his distinguished chairmanship of the committee of which I happen to be a member. I also thank the secretariat to that committee for all the hard work they put into producing this report under very challenging circumstances with regard to time. They are to be congratulated and the whole House owes them a debt of gratitude.

The noble Lord, Lord Murray of Blidworth, disputes the sovereignty of Mauritius. He is entitled to do that. I happen to disagree with him. But I wonder on what basis he asserts the sovereignty of the United Kingdom other than by force of arms—the same force of arms that is, as we speak, being utilised against the people of Ukraine by Russia. We have to be very careful—

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

Does the noble Lord agree that our claim to sovereignty stems from the treaty that we agreed in 1814?

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

A treaty signed under duress.

Let us be very clear: these islands are African islands. These islands are inhabited by African people brought there as slaves in the economic interest of Britain and France. So, it ill behoves the noble Lord or any of us to assume a position of moral or ethical superiority when it comes to the Chagos Islands.

It must also be said, and I say so with great reluctance, to the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, for whom I have the utmost respect, that he described the Chagossians as a people about whom we know nothing. They are a people about whom we—

[Lord Mancroft (Con)]

I was not referring to the Chagossians.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

I am much obliged to the noble Lord, because we know a great deal about the Chagossians. We know that they have been the victims of abuse and deceit over many years. We know that they have been lied to. We know that they have been consistently mistreated, and, as the committee report makes very clear, we accept that there is some basis in reality that, over many years, the interests of the Chagossians have been subordinated to the national security interests of the United Kingdom and its allies. That is an undisputed fact.

I had the pleasure, as we all had, of listening to the valedictory speech of the noble Lord, Lord Boswell, who many of us know. I entered the other place at the same time as he did. His has been a period of service dedicated to the notion of humanity and decency. That is what we all try to uphold in this place, do we not? As we consider this treaty, we have a duty to uphold those values of humanity and decency when it comes to the people of the Chagos Islands.

I am bound to say to the Minister, who has done so much for this country and its reputation in Africa and the wider world, that we need a greater degree of certainty that the Chagossians are, in fact, going to be treated better now than they have been in the past, because they have been promised compensation in the past and they have not had it. We want to know that any procedures, any committees, any trust fund established under this treaty will be supervised in a way that ensures that the Chagossians benefit from it because, in the past, others in Mauritius have benefited, but the Chagossians have not. Certainly, the Chagossians in this country and the Seychelles have all too often been left out of consideration altogether. I hope the Minister will give us that assurance. If he does, we can welcome this treaty as an end to a period of colonial rule that has not always done this nation any credit. On the contrary, it has devalued our commitment to humanity and decency, and the people of the Chagos Islands are entitled to some redress for that.

Defence and Security

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, the move to 3% is necessary and involves some hard choices, but does the Leader of the House agree that the defence and security of the British people is a three-legged stool that demands defence, diplomacy and development; and that, if you cut one leg, there is a danger of imbalance to the whole structure? Does she agree that there will be a need for smart procurement, there will be a need for innovative funding mechanisms and there will be a need for targeted interventions in development if we are to recognise the facts that the fastest-growing military force in Africa is the People’s Liberation Army and that the Russian Wagner Group has been deployed in not just Ukraine but Sudan, Mali and the Sahel and throughout Africa, and that needs to be recognised?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend; his experience and powerful words are to be listened to. I made the point in an earlier answer that diplomacy, development and defence have to be balanced, and there is a rebalancing here, but we retain that commitment to return to spending 0.7% on ODA. But there is also the point, which my noble friend made, about how that money is spent and used to affect fundamentally those three areas of diplomacy, development and defence. That is really important, which is why issues such as procurement and the effectiveness of the money must be looked at, as must our relationships with other countries and working in partnership with other countries. As I have said and can only repeat, there is a generational shift today in how we look at these issues going forward.

UK Leadership on Sudan

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government’s Statement and the Minister’s active engagement on this issue are to be warmly welcomed. The increase in humanitarian aid is helpful and necessary, but state institutions in Sudan are weak, there is active mischief-making by external parties, including Russia, and the best hope for Sudan surely lies in civil society organisations. Those are assisted by the Addis process and the African Union’s expanded mechanism, which is being helped by the United States, but what proportion of this additional funding from the UK is going to go to supporting civil society institutions within Sudan and their contribution to conflict resolution and peacekeeping?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The noble Lord is absolutely right: we are financially supporting Taqaddum, which is operating outside but also operating within civilian groups inside. Picking up the point that the noble Lord, Lord Purvis, raised, on education and children, Education Cannot Wait will also receive £14 million to provide safe learning spaces and psychosocial support to over 200,000 vulnerable children in refugee and host communities in Sudan, as well as in Chad and other countries.

On civil society, it is absolutely right that we have to mobilise and give voice to that. We should not restrict it just to those organisations that we know exist; one of the things I will be doing on Wednesday is attending a round table hosted by Zeinab Badawi, president of SOAS, who is establishing a Sudanese diaspora group initiative called Humanitarian Action for Sudan. We are going to take every opportunity to ensure that we can build support, both inside Sudan and outside.

Volunteering Abroad

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 30th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I cannot be specific about that. I can assure the noble Lord that we are keen to encourage the widest possible range of volunteering and youth engagement. If he follows my Twitter—or X—feed, which I think he does, he will have seen that I congratulated the world Scout movement on its anniversary and activity, so we are not limited. We should be embracing the Youth Hostels Association and its important work and giving them as much encouragement as possible.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, would the Minister, who has been travelling extensively and to such good effect in recent months, like to recognise the role of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which has been promoting volunteering not just in this country but abroad, including in areas of conflict in Israel and Jordan, these many years? Would he like to commend its work and encourage missions overseas to support it in every way they can?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

Just to reassure my noble friend, I will do that. In my first three months in post, I have visited seven African countries to ensure that we develop a very strong partnership that delivers on the sorts of things he highlighted. I certainly agree about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Sadly, I reached only the bronze level; I failed on my orienteering skills. I suspect I would be more successful now.