Official Development Assistance

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Thursday 27th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I thank the noble and right reverend Lord. On his first question, importantly, the Foreign Secretary will lead a cross-departmental process to consider all the aid allocations. We will work through how our ODA budget will be used as part of ongoing spending review and resource-allocation processes, based on various factors, including impact assessments.

To repeat the point I made before, it is important that our development efforts are seen not just through ODA. The United Kingdom uses expertise, policy influencing, global convening and other trade and economic levers. I have visited many African countries in the last six months; I know what leaders are telling me. Our new approach to developing partnerships is about leveraging greater investment, economic growth and empowerment through the creation of jobs. That is how we will deliver change, and that is what we will continue to do.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Interests. I also draw the attention of my noble friend the Minister to a question I asked last Thursday, in the debate on the G7 Statement, about the precarious nature of the FCDO’s global demining programme, which was threatened at that time because the money came from ODA. I do this because, in many contexts, an artificial dichotomy between aid and security spending is something of a false dichotomy. Consequently, I ask my noble friend: what are we doing with our allies to ensure that the ODA money, which we have to spend collectively, is targeted where it can do the most good and, importantly, yield tangible benefits for peace and security?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a really good point. The demining projects are about increasing security, but they are also vital for economic growth and development. I have been to countries where we have supported those projects and where agriculture has increased as a consequence of being able to deal with that issue. So my noble friend is absolutely right: this is about economic growth but it is also about security. As he knows, we have secured the contract for HALO to ensure that we can continue this excellent work.

Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 19th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a real pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhope, in this relatively unusual outburst of ecumenism among Scots. It is also a pleasure to join the chorus of unanimity which has characterised this Bill’s progress here and in the other place. I have often had occasion to chafe against the time restrictions on Back-Bench contributions in your Lordships’ House, but, given my unqualified support for this Bill and the absence of any dissenting voices, I will keep my contribution short. I cannot guarantee, however, that it will not in part be repetitive of other noble Lords’.

This legislation is becomingly simple, and rights an obvious wrong. As we have heard, it amends the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 to allow the sovereign to nominate Lady Elish Angiolini as His Majesty’s High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, much as Section 1 of the Lord Chancellor (Tenure of Office and Discharge of Ecclesiastical Functions) Act 1974 opened that office to members of the Roman Catholic faith. It is no surprise that it is His Majesty King Charles’s nomination of Lady Elish that has prompted this important legislation. His commitment to interfaith dialogue and mutual respect between different faiths was a constant animating principle during his time as Prince of Wales, and the Bill before your Lordships’ House today represents a further step towards formal equality.

The Promissory Oaths Act 1871 already removed a bar to people professing the Jewish faith holding the office of Lord High Commissioner. In that context, I refer to the briefing paper of the Law Society of Scotland, which I thank for identifying the remaining elements of the Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the Jews Relief Act 1858 which hold trace elements of religious discrimination that remain part of British law. I commend my noble friend the Lord Privy Seal, and the Prime Minister, for their energy in seeking to tackle those remaining matters of discrimination as soon as possible. As the noble Lord, Lord True, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, referred to, the sooner that can be done, the better, because, as we all know, legislation holds both a practical and a symbolic value. In this particular context, a Bill which removes these historic anomalies would not just be overwhelmingly welcomed in Scotland by the Roman Catholic community and others but would be a worthy symbol of positive change for a Government who base their whole term of service on changing, and this is one of the many changes which need to be added to their list.

As we have already heard, the appointment of Lady Elish Angiolini exemplifies, and gives expression to, the historic St Margaret declaration of friendship between the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland, signed in 2022. I am pleased to have been reminded by my friend, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, that this was during his term of office, and I am not surprised that he was part of the process which caused that to happen. I thank him for his contribution.

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness (LD)]

It was not signed during my term of office, but it was worked up during my term of office, and then approved at the General Assembly when I stood down, and signed by my successor.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

I thank the noble and learned Lord for that clarification. None the less, I will not withdraw my thanks and congratulations to him.

It is perhaps difficult for anyone who has not lived in Scotland to appreciate just what an extraordinary step that represented, and, still further, what the sovereign’s appointment of an Irish-born Catholic woman as Lord High Commissioner represents. The spirit of ecumenism, amity and fraternity between different Christian denominations is at the heart of this legislation. In his 1995 encyclical on ecumenism, Pope John Paul II pleaded with Catholic leaders to adopt a fraternal attitude to the members of other denominations in the following words:

“We should therefore pray … for the grace to be genuinely self-denying, humble, gentle in the service of others, and to have an attitude of brotherly generosity towards them”.


Whatever one’s view of Catholicism, Christianity or faith in general, it is hard to quarrel with those sentiments. In that spirit, it is perhaps appropriate that the nomination of Lady Elish has taken place so close to the King’s state visit to the Vatican, as he continues to demonstrate his commitment to interfaith dialogue.

It has been said, but bears repeating, that Lady Elish has a record of distinguished public service, and a career that already encompasses several firsts. Noble Lords will recall the opening of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, in which he describes

“the sound of English county families baying for broken glass”.

Lady Elish must be used to a similar—though rather more wholesome—sound, given the number of glass ceilings that she has shattered in the course of her distinguished career. As she does so yet again, I wish her well in her new appointment, and give my wholehearted support to the Bill before your Lordships’ House.

War in Sudan

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Browne of Ladyton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of recent advances by the Sudanese Armed Forces in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Collins of Highbury) (Lab)]

My Lords, the conflict in Sudan has created the worst humanitarian situation in the world. Both sides are responsible for inflicting terrible suffering on civilians. The Foreign Secretary discussed the latest developments with colleagues at the G20 last week, and in April he will host a Foreign Ministers conference to establish international consensus on the next steps. The Sudanese people deserve a peaceful Sudan led by a fully representative civilian Government.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, only weeks ago Amnesty International came into possession of a list of civilian activists, human rights defenders, medics and humanitarian workers whom the Sudanese Armed Forces planned to target for reprisals once it gained sufficient ascendency over Khartoum. The RSF has also repeatedly targeted civilians who it believes have co-operated with the SAF. As it stands, whether the SAF or the RSF win a skirmish, the civilian population always loses. What can we do, in partnership with allies, to put pressure on both sides to stop this grim pattern of reprisal attacks against the very groups that will be essential in building a lasting peace once conflict has abated?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right to point out that both sides have committed horrendous atrocities, despite the commitments they made in the Jeddah declaration to limit the impact on civilians. UK leadership has been critical of that through its continued scrutiny of Sudan. In October at the Human Rights Council, a UK-led Sudan Core Group resolution was adopted to renew the mandate of the fact-finding mission to ensure that such atrocities are exposed and that we can properly scrutinise the credible allegations of human rights violations. Last week at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, I met Mona Rishmawi, who leads the fact-finding mission, and I assured her of our continued support to do proper scrutiny and to hold the people who commit such crimes to account.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: M23 Group

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

The noble Lord’s previous Government reached an agreement to give substantially more money to Rwanda.

The important point here is that our focus for development assistance is on those most in need. The measures that we announced today—I was able to convey these to the Foreign Minister of Rwanda in Geneva this morning at the Human Rights Council—are as follows: we will cease high-level attendance at events hosted by the Government of Rwanda; we are freezing trade promotion activity with Rwanda; we are reviewing our existing trade infrastructure in facilitation projects; and we are pausing direct bilateral financial aid to the Government of Rwanda. We are excluding from this our support for the poorest and most vulnerable, which is not direct support; we are committed to that. We are also co-ordinating with partners on potential sanctions designations and suspending future defence training assistance to Rwanda. Our position is absolutely clear. We want to ensure that these measures achieve what they set out to do: to ensure that Rwanda commits to the peace process led by the African Union.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

We will hear from my noble friend Lord Browne and then from the Liberal Democrat Benches.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary warned that the conflict in the DRC

“risks spiralling into a regional conflict”.

It is already a humanitarian crisis, with 40,000 refugees fleeing to Burundi alone—the largest influx that country has had in 25 years. Are we contributing to the UNHCR’s $40.4 million appeal to provide life-saving assistance to 275,000 internally displaced people in the DRC and to support refugees and returnees across Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very good point. The real risk was that this was going to create regional instability, which is why we not only supported the Luanda process but very much welcomed the convening of the SADC-EAC meeting in Dar es Salaam last week, which set out a very clear process. He is absolutely right to draw attention to the huge humanitarian cost of 2.7 million people displaced—IDPs in eastern DRC. The United Kingdom is the leading humanitarian partner in DRC and the second-largest donor in the country, allocating over £62 million for this financial year for humanitarian programmes in eastern DRC. I also take seriously my responsibility as the envoy for the prevention of sexual violence in conflict. That is a huge risk at the moment, and we are devoted to supporting survivors of sexual violence in that region. We are not going to rest until we ensure that all parties are focused on that agreement reached in Dar es Salaam at the end of last week.

UK Strategy Towards the Arctic (International Relations and Defence Committee Report)

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to participate in today’s proceedings and to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this report. Given the distinguished membership of the committee that produced it—not least the chair the noble Lord, Lord Ashton of Hyde, whom I thank for his excellent introductory speech—the report’s thoroughness and forensic analysis are perhaps unsurprising, but valuable none the less.

Even the most cursory glance at the report’s structure demonstrates the breadth of its scope. It asks us to consider the UK’s role—historic and future—in respect of the Arctic. It points up the future of the Arctic as a sphere of potential great power contestation and analyses the implications of growing economic activity, consequent in part on the effects of climate change.

Mindful of the limited time I have available, and of the priority that should be accorded to the members of the committee which produced this report, my contribution will focus on a relatively small number of points, the first of which, and its effect, have to a degree already been diluted by some of the introductory remarks by the noble Lord, Lord Ashton of Hyde.

The Arctic Circle is only 380 miles north of British waters, which is only 64 miles less than the distance by road between my home in the west of Scotland and London. As the report reminds us, although the Arctic is a byword for remoteness, it is in fact extraordinarily close to our country, in terms of both geography and, much more importantly, our strategic interests.

I saw no inherent flaw in the previous Government’s expressed desire to give our foreign policy an Indo-Pacific tilt. Noble Lords will need no reminder from me that the sinews of diplomacy in that area are very often subject to strain, nor will they need to be reminded of the importance of that region in economic, political and military terms. But the report we are debating today, as well as the evidence session of 11 July 2023 in which the committee took evidence from the then Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey, makes it clear that there are real challenges of capacity if the UK is to maintain and increase its relationships operability in the High North.

In short, there are choices to be made. In that evidence session, Mr Heappey summed up this environment of choice very effectively, saying that:

“It is important not to specify ships”—


I say this with some trepidation in the current environment—

“to be extraordinarily capable in one environment to the exclusion of their capability in another. If we specify them to be extraordinarily capable in both environments, we will only be able to afford one, not six. There is always a balance to strike”.

That is as succinct a summary of the constraints and contextual challenges of defence spending as I have seen. Pierre Mendès-France, during his time as Prime Minister of France, repeated in speech after speech the mantra

“to govern is to choose”.

As part of the strategic defence review, currently in progress under the aegis of my noble friend Lord Robertson, we will be faced with just such choices: the allocation of finite resources to meet a multiplicity of threats across different spheres.

Given the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO membership, we have new obligations in the Arctic and the High North. As paragraph 105 of the report makes clear, we are now in the position of applying our NATO security guarantees under Article 5 to a new landmass of significant size. While I think interoperability between the Finnish, Swedish and NATO forces should be pretty straightforward, a capacity issue remains. Here, we have a challenge significantly greater, in some senses, than any other NATO allies because of our near unique capabilities and the demands of our geographical position.

As the report identifies, only the UK and US have the capability to conduct nuclear submarine patrols under the ice cap. Russia has made substantial investments into its northern fleet and we know, for instance, that, in 2019, 10 Russian submarines ran a drill of a size unprecedented since the Cold War, testing their ability to breach the GIUK gap without detection.

We know too that Russia’s latest maritime doctrine places the Arctic above both the Pacific and Atlantic as the highest priority region. It is unfortunately clear that, in the medium term at least, it seems unlikely that we will be able to return to our classic post-Cold War aspiration of the Arctic as an area of “high co-operation and low tension”. Indeed, the best way to abate the tension—or at least to mitigate its possible consequences—is to ensure maximal co-operation between the UK and its allies in the region. It seems clear that this will only be possible if we assign this theatre an importance that corresponds with the new risks present within it.

I have only been able to touch on the breadth of those risks, but among the other factors I do not have time to enumerate in any depth, I would mention President Xi’s openly expressed ambition to make China a “polar great power” and the see-sawing asymmetrical relationship between China and Russia that may allow the former to use the latter as a proxy for its own ambitions.

Complicating all these strategic calculations is the insidious threat of climate change, the effects of which are manifesting themselves in the Arctic at several times the average global rate. The Arctic states and the UK will need to consider their response to an Arctic that presents new commercial opportunities, as well as a different range of security threats.

Most topically, we have seen the President-elect insist that he should be allowed to buy Greenland for national security purposes. Though, as ever, there is a shadow of farce hanging over this pronouncement, it is clear that the incoming US Administration will be placing greater emphasis on strategy in the High North.

Although I concur with the report in thinking it unlikely that the Arctic will become a theatre of military conflict, it describes in compelling terms the opportunities that the changing character of the Arctic affords to our strategic adversaries who wish to operate in the grey zone of hostility.

Scotland

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Monday 4th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My Lords, if the noble Lord checks back to past Budgets, I think he will find that previous Chancellors from his side of the House put more of an increase on Scotch whisky, whereas this was an increase in line with RPI. If he looks at the Budget overall, he will see that the amount awarded to Scotland is actually significantly greater than at any other time since devolution.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, under this Government’s predecessor, with the SNP in government in Scotland, the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster was at best uneasy and too often characterised by mutual suspicion and sometimes open acrimony. Given Labour’s record on devolution, what lessons have been drawn from last month’s inaugural meeting of the Council of the Nations and Regions on resetting the relationship between the Scottish and UK Governments, which of course is a manifesto pledge?

Horn of Africa

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, I begin by commending, thanking and congratulating my noble friend Lady Harman of Peckham on her maiden speech today, a speech demonstrably characterised by great experience, wisdom and insight. I will not attempt to be the feminist from the male sex in this speech— I am too much of a coward in this environment.

Occasionally, I am deluded in regarding myself as an experienced parliamentarian, with 13 years in the other place and 11 years in your Lordships’ House, taking into account that I had a three-year leave of absence. However, next to someone who served in the House of Commons for 40 years—is it 40 or 42 years? My noble friend says it is 40 years and she will know, because she has probably counted them. That makes her, as I understand it, the second-longest serving female MP in British history after my noble friend Lady Beckett, who I am delighted to see in her place today—and ended up as the Mother of the House, I am forced to regard myself as something of a neophyte in this sort of company. No less extraordinary is the fact that, on ending such a distinguished tenure, my noble friend has promptly taken up another role and entered your Lordships’ House. Indeed, perhaps only in politics could one essay this somewhat Benjamin Button-esque transformation from being the Mother of one House to an eager, thrusting new arrival in the other.

I could easily fill my allotted time by rehearsing the details of my noble friend’s distinguished career—noble Lords will be glad to hear that I will not. In my time in politics, I can scarcely think of a better fit between a job and its holder than her time as the first Minister for Women. Her role in driving the adoption of the Equality Act 2010 will be long remembered and long celebrated, and her service as deputy leader and chair of the Labour Party was undertaken with commitment and distinction.

The golden thread running through my noble friend’s career is a passionate commitment to equality and the protection of the human dignity of every individual. That consistency of purpose and sheer doggedness tell me that she is an invaluable addition to your Lordships’ House and that she will command respect and attention in all her interventions in our proceedings.

I thank my noble friend the Minister not merely for affording us the opportunity to consider this Motion today but for the characteristically wise and well-informed speech with which he opened the debate. I called for a full debate in government time on the situation in the Horn of Africa in Oral Questions on 10 October. Whether the scheduling of today’s debate is causation or coincidence, I join other noble Lords in welcoming the opportunity to turn the full glare of our attention to the conflicts that disfigure some parts of the Horn of Africa and the splintering peace in others.

It is perhaps understandable—but no less regrettable—that in general, conflicts in this part of the world are ill-served by international reporting, and consequently receive a very small percentage of global attention. I do not propose to enter into the question of why, for instance, the deaths of around 20,000 in the Sudanese civil war since April 2023 have excited such an extraordinarily small fraction of the international emotion and indignation that has focused on Ukraine and the Middle East over the last couple of years, but it is something that might repay a little thought. Finland’s Foreign Minister rightly warned about the dangers of “Ukraine fatigue” two weeks ago. Those who are victims of state-sponsored violence or repression or of militia groups in the Horn of Africa would welcome even a fraction of the apparently attenuating western attention that is focused on Ukraine.

Mindful of the debate on the 40th anniversary of the Ethiopian famine and the many forensic and moving contributions from noble Lords on that occasion, I will focus the first part of my remarks on Eritrea. Your Lordships’ House will be aware that on 10 October, the Presidents of Egypt, Somalia and Eritrea met in Asmara to sign a joint statement which pledged the three participants to work together for

“strategic co-operation in all fields”.

That designedly vague phraseology should give us pause but, if precedent is any guide, we can expect an intensification of mutual military aid and co-ordination —largely directed against Ethiopia. Indeed, even before the summit concluded, Egypt had sent two arms shipments to Somalia to reduce its reliance on Ethiopian forces in fighting al-Shabaab.

The communiqué that followed the summit underlined tripartite agreement on—I read this short—

“respect for the sovereignty … and territorial integrity of the countries”

in the region. Although cloaked in the cool objectivity of diplomatic language, this was a pretty clear disavowal of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s coastal ambitions and the MoU Ethiopia has concluded with Somaliland.

Such agreements serve only to normalise Eritrea and its regime, but Eritrea has consistently acted as a destabilising force in the region. Not only is it a one-party state but it is now a one-family state, with President Isaias having frequently signalled his intention that his son should succeed him. It ranks last out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. It sits 161st out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perception index. The UN special rapporteur describes “severe control” exercised by the state over every aspect of civil and personal life, and daily repression clouds the lives of all Eritreans. Thousands of political prisoners within Eritrea are subject to torture and sexual violence, 300,000 individuals are subjected to forced labour, and almost half of Eritrea’s population is forced into military service, which can last for decades.

These statistics detailing internal repression within Eritrea are grim enough, but the recent diplomatic alignment with Egypt and Somalia is doubly concerning given Eritrea’s long record of intensifying regional conflicts or fanning them into flame. Eritrea’s President Isaias has a record of plotting attacks against neighbouring states. Despite having won independence from Ethiopia as recently as 1993, Eritrea has already engaged in conflicts with Yemen, Sudan and Djibouti, while recently offering intermittent support to al-Shabaab. With all that in mind, can the Minster tell us what assessment the Government have made of the potential benefits or drawbacks of sanctioning individual members of the Eritrean Government and the Eritrean Defence Forces who have involved themselves in serious human rights violations in Tigray and Eritrea itself, their own country?

I would also welcome any comments my noble friend might share on Eritrea’s diplomatic closeness with Beijing. Only last month, President Isaias attended the Beijing summit and was greeted by Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council, and a warm statement committing to further Sino-Eritrean co-operation under the auspices of the belt and road initiative. I mention that not merely because it is a further supervening diplomatic complication but because those economic ties to China and the Gulf states render our sanctions many times less effective than they otherwise would be.

I have focused my attention thus far on Eritrea and its increasing gravitation towards Somalia and Egypt, but as other noble Lords have reminded us, the start of this phase of escalation is at least partly consequent on the MoU signed by Ethiopia and Somaliland. The expansionist ambitions of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are placing a severe strain on relations with Somalia. They are pulling other regional powers, including Egypt and Turkey, into the orbit of this diplomatic crisis, and have fashioned an ideal context in which al-Shabaab recruitment and funding have spiked.

Of course, the quid pro quo for coastal access in the MoU between Ethiopia and Somaliland is the recognition of Somaliland independence. I understand those who point to the cultural distinctiveness, the resilience of civil society and the six democratic elections and peaceful transfers of power in Somaliland as factors that should impel this country to recognise Somaliland independence, but I worry about the consequences.

A senior adviser to the Somali president, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told the world that Somalia is prepared to countenance war with Ethiopia over the deal. In June, Somalia announced that it would expel thousands of Ethiopian troops deployed against al-Shabaab unless the deal was scrapped by the end of the year. Compounding that capacity problem in quelling terrorism, the Institute for the Study of War released an analysis last month that suggested that an intensification of Egyptian military support for Somalia would destabilise the region and hinder operations designed to counter al-Shabaab. In such a febrile situation, what precedent would UK recognition of Somaliland aspirations set?

Were we to indulge in unilateral recognition of Somaliland independence, it is not only possible but probable that this would be seen as implicit endorsement for the separatist aspirations of a host of other groups and regions across the Horn of Africa. In other quarters, it may well be greeted as a piece of high-minded neocolonialism, pushing states engaged in conflict with separatists in their own populations further into the arms of China, Russia and other strategic adversaries. No UN member state has recognised Somaliland’s claim of independence, and earlier this year their Government began the process of appealing to the International Court of Justice. It would surely be destabilising to pre-empt, or possibly to disavow, that judgment by proceeding unilaterally.

The Ethiopia/Somaliland MoU stipulates that Ethiopia can lease a 20-kilometer coastline in Somaliland’s Awdal region for 50 years to build its naval base. That region within Somaliland is dominated by the Issa clan, who have protested vigorously against this deal, accused the Somaliland Government of selling their land and threatened war if the agreement is not rescinded. This is another reminder, if one were needed, of the intense complexities that shape the politics of this region.

Your Lordships’ House will recall the Edwardian satirist, Saki, who in 1911 described countries in the Balkans as producing

“more history than they can consume locally”.

We all know what followed three years later. I believe that the same remark could be applied to this region, with all its complexity: ethnic, religious, cultural and political affiliations that do not conform neatly with national boundaries.

I reiterate my admiration for the vigour with which my noble friend the Minister, the Foreign Secretary and others have pursued a course of de-escalation in the Horn of Africa in the few short months they have been in post. With that in mind, can my noble friend say what consideration the Government are giving to ongoing participation in the EU’s CSDP missions, including in Somalia? Given that international unity is the best means we have of mitigating the humanitarian impact of regional divisions and conflicts, such a step, while small, may well enable us better to ease these conflicts in the medium to longer terms.

Ethiopia Famine: 40th Anniversary

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, given the gravity of the events that are the subject of today’s proceedings, if it is not exactly a pleasure to contribute to this debate, I am pleased to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone. I thank her for securing this debate and for a clear-eyed, informed, impressively analytical and forensic speech. I intend not to repeat the appalling statistics that show the extent to which food insecurity in Ethiopia remains a present reality but to focus on the Tigray and Amhara regions.

As the Motion before your Lordships’ House makes clear, when we examine the situation in Ethiopia today, there is an awful resonance about the events of 1984. Though thankfully different in scale, the current acute food insecurity has one key element in common with the famine of the 1980s: both are, to some extent, manmade. An essay published in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies in June underscores the extent to which, in the conflict between the Ethiopian armed forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front,

“belligerent parties on all sides employed food as a weapon, actions that included destroying local food supplies, dismantling capacities to produce food and market infrastructure, and diverting humanitarian aid toward supporters and away from adversaries”.

Though the TPLF and the Ethiopian Government concluded a fragile—and, in the case of the neighbouring Amhara region, largely ostensible—peace in November 2022, the concentric circles of that conflict continue to ripple outwards. Last year, we saw starvation deaths in both Tigray and Amhara. Almost 700,000 people are still displaced and over a quarter of a million men remain under arms and the TPLF banner. Despite the efforts of both this Government and their predecessor, there remains a significant gap between the humanitarian funding needed to feed the hungry in Ethiopia and the amount pledged by the international community.

Perhaps most importantly for those who wish to see the fragile peace between the TPLF and the Ethiopian Government endure, there has been no peace dividend in Tigray. History tells us that, if swords are to be beaten into ploughshares, a demonstrable improvement in everyday conditions needs rapidly to be achieved. Though this summer’s rainy season saw some crops being brought in, many farmers continue to suffer from the historical effects of drought, with some having been unable to harvest for years. Critically, agricultural infrastructure is in a parlous state, with many farmers having had their equipment looted or damaged during the period of conflict. The USAID-supported Famine Early Warning Systems Network has estimated that large parts of northern and eastern Ethiopia experienced crisis levels of food insecurity from August to September 2024 —that is the last two months—and parts of Afar, Tigray and Amhara in the north were in the emergency category.

Meanwhile, the western part of Tigray is disfigured by a campaign of ethnic cleansing prosecuted by Fano militia. They have displaced hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans, perpetrated massacres and used torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention. That region is now cut off from aid delivery, and sesame, a crucial cash crop that underpins the economy of that region, is going unharvested. Negotiations between the Fano leadership and the Ethiopian Government are not progressing, with a resolution appearing unlikely in the months ahead. Indeed, the counteroffensive of the Ethiopian National Defence Force has led to the indefinite suspension of all transportation activities within the Amhara region, effective from 3 October. That will only impede humanitarian access further, lead to further food shortages and intensify the horrors of conflict.

Where food has so often been used as a weapon of conflict, there is nothing that will act as a greater spur to a renewal of hostilities as the persistence of starvation in peacetime. Earlier this afternoon, your Lordships’ House debated the link between conflict and extreme poverty. That link is as profound as it is inexorable, and no less indissoluble is the need to ensure that peace brings, if not plenty, at least the means of minimum subsistence.

All the humanitarian issues we have heard enumerated in this debate so far are taking place against a darkening backdrop in the Horn of Africa as a whole. The expansionist ambitions of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are placing a severe strain on relations with Somalia, are pulling other regional powers, including Egypt and Turkey, into the orbit of this diplomatic crisis, and have fashioned an ideal context in which al-Shabaab recruitment and funding have spiked. I know, partly from a ministerial response to my Question I asked on the 7 October, that my noble friend Lord Collins and the Foreign Secretary have made representations at the highest level with the Government of Ethiopia to urge de-escalation. I know that the whole House will wish them well in those efforts.

As the FCDO’s report on UK aid spending in Ethiopia published in July last year made clear, there is something of a paradox about the economic situation there. It described 20 million people as “severely food insecure”, outlines the plight of

“11 million in drought-affected areas”

and identifies an upsurge in cases of cholera, malaria and measles. But this deterioration sits alongside an “ambitious reform agenda”, with significant investment in clean energy, aviation, finance and telecoms. Though any measures which improve the Ethiopian economy are positive, a sharp disjunction between the beneficiaries of this investment and those regions of Ethiopia that continue to see starvation deaths, a lack of basic infra- structure and outbreaks of conflict may serve only to stiffen the resolve of separatist movements to continue their armed struggle against a Government who are apparently oblivious to their suffering.

When preparing my remarks for today’s proceedings, a quotation from Marx’s essay on Louis Napoleon repeatedly came to mind. It runs:

“Men make their own history … under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living”.


I hope that when our successors gather to debate Ethiopia a few decades hence, they will be in a position to celebrate long-term peace and progress rather than trace the outline of that dreadful historical circularity which has so often held Ethiopia in its grip.

Sudan

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Friday 13th September 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, it has been a singular privilege to sit through so many passionate, far-sighted and informed speeches from across your Lordships’ House. The contributions have been informed, in the great majority of cases, by personal experience—none of which I have. I express my thanks to my noble friend the Minister for tabling the Motion and allowing us the opportunity to consider this appalling conflict. I congratulate him for all the very many reasons articulated by others in the context of this debate.

As others have said, to some extent, characterising what is going on in Sudan as a conflict in the singular is itself misleading. Since Sudan achieved independence in 1956, its population has lived through 35 coups, attempted coups or coup plots—more than any other country ever. As we have heard from many knowledgeable speakers, the civil war that currently blights the lives of the Sudanese has at once an ostensibly simple cause and, simultaneously, twisted and complex roots in Sudan’s tragic recent history. The immediate or proximate cause is the power vacuum left by the removal of Omar al-Bashir and the contending attempts of the SAF and the RSF to fill and exploit it. But behind that immediate contention lies the legacy of Bashir’s three decades in power: his use of the Janjaweed militia in the Darfur genocide, supervening ethnic and religious tensions and a willingness of external powers to treat Sudan as a proxy or test case for their own ambitions.

The current conflict is now in its second year. While events in Ukraine and Gaza have monopolised global attention, the UN has characterised Sudan as undergoing the world’s “largest hunger crisis”. Casualty estimates range from 15,000 to 150,000, and more than 10 million people have been displaced both internally and into unstable neighbouring areas, including Chad and Ethiopia. In each of these statistics, as we have heard from those with personal experience, is an individual story, and each individual tragedy deepens the intransigence of the opposing sides. Critically, the breakdown in political stability has been mirrored by a crisis in health and food security.

I sense that every Member of your Lordships’ House could spend far more than their allotted time enumerating the plight of women and children who, with grim inevitability, have borne a disproportionate burden in this conflict. But a few headline statistics do paint an indicative picture and, as others have done, I shall do that.

More than three-quarters of the health infrastructure in Sudan has been destroyed or is out of commission. This has not merely led to a resurgence in diseases such as malaria, cholera and measles but has heightened the population’s vulnerability to mpox. More than 17 million Sudanese children do not have access to clean drinking water, and now it appears that the same number do not have access to education. As the new Development Minister, my right honourable friend Anneliese Dodds, attested after her visit in the summer, Sudan is suffering from a manmade famine. In all, estimates suggest—this is horrifying—that up to 2.5 million people could die of starvation by the end of this year alone. This is the first global declaration of famine for more than seven years.

Despite global awareness of the scale of the suffering, as the noble Lord, Lord Oates, pointed out, the UN appeal for Sudan is only 41% funded. The appeal for the regional refugee response is only 8.5% funded. In addition, the lack of safe and unimpeded humanitarian access is one of the biggest challenges facing humanitarian organisations in scaling up their assistance. My noble friend the Minister raised the restriction on aid convoys in his opening remarks. Drawing on a briefing we perhaps all received overnight from the World Food Programme, I ask the Minister what consideration the Government have given to its suggestion that decoupling ceasefire negotiations from negotiations about humanitarian access may help. If unimpeded access for aid continues to be contingent on progress on the peace track, it may be that we are inadvertently prolonging suffering on the ground.

In debates such as these it is common, as my noble friend the Minister did in opening, to call for a united international response in the hope that such unanimity of purpose might help to abate the tragedy. He is right in that, but much of the limited international political action that has been taken in relation to this conflict has served to fuel further violence and instability.

A report published in July by Amnesty International analysed the export path of the weapons with which this war is being waged. The UAE supplies bullets and drones to the RSF, and the UN has had reports it describes as credible suggesting that much of the RSF’s communications and political operations are run out of that country. Iran and Egypt arm the SAF. Russia has bizarrely supplied arms to both sides, and Wagner mercenaries have been seen on the ground. Turkey’s main weapons manufacturer supplies the SAF, while thousands of Turkish weapons, ostensibly for the civilian market, have found their way into Sudan. An article in the Economist, published about 10 days ago, describes the cumulative effect of these actions as to turn Sudan into “a murderous bazaar”. All this is despite a mandatory UN Security Council arms embargo on Sudan from 2004.

In our capacity as penholder on Sudan, what steps are the UK Government taking not just to enforce but to widen the existing embargo? In addition to the issues raised by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leeds, can the Minister explain what discussions have taken place, both internally and with our allies, on sanctioning the individuals and companies who knowingly flout these restrictions? Accountability is essential, but anything we can do for prevention is even better.

Against this backdrop of suffering and crisis, what response have we seen from the leaders of the two factions? It has been the grotesque spectacle of the head of the SAF and the head of the paramilitary RSF travelling the world to garner political support and legitimacy, while their supporters commit war crimes at home, including targeted mass rape and indiscriminate slaughter. In addition to supplying aid to Sudan and highlighting this slowly unfolding tragedy, our most immediate aim—aside, of course, from mitigating the maximum of human suffering—should be to prevent another genocide, as the noble Lord, Lord Alton of Liverpool, explained well and convincingly.

The RSF is also embarking on a programme of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in West Darfur. More widely, war crimes are being committed with impunity by both sides, and it is only the relative equality of strength between them that has prevented genocide from taking place. Sadly, history tells us that appalling humanitarian crimes do not always act as an inhibiting example; in fact, they often serve further to embolden their perpetrators.

This Government have, in their short time in office, built on the commitments made by their predecessor, providing an additional £15 million in aid on top of the doubling of aid that we have already seen. The Foreign Secretary raised the issue of Sudan with other G7 Foreign Ministers in his first days in office. I have seen the support that, as penholder on Sudan at the UN Security Council, this country has provided for the Jeddah talks and believe that we must continue to do all we can to bring pressure to bear on both sides to end the boycott of these negotiations.

I had intended to spend my last seconds to make an argument for a special envoy, but it appears that this has already been taken care of. What I will do is draw attention again to the right reverend Prelate’s suggestion that the strategic defence review headed by my noble friend Lord Robertson should engage on the issue of peacebuilding. My noble friend joined us, although he has since left. Both he and I are ambassadors of the Halo Trust, an organisation working on not just mine clearance but conflict prevention. Its current CEO, a former soldier, intends to expand it into the space that was suggested, and I have no doubt that my noble friend will be willing to examine that possibility.

NATO and European Political Community Meetings

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. First, I apologise to the Leader of the Opposition; he asked me a question that I forgot to respond to. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, will not mind that I address that. The Leader of the Opposition asked me about the Global Combat Air Programme, an intergovernmental organisation. An order will come forward to this House, probably on Monday; I will propose a Business of the House Motion to allow that to come forward. I will send him information about that; I think that the Chief Whips have already spoken.

On Hungary, I say to the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, that his question is probably one for the European Union rather than me. It is worth restating that we stand completely in solidarity with Ukraine—that is an ironclad commitment. There have been different views within the EU—Hungary, is notably one of them—but the EU has spoken with one voice and stands with Ukraine.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, I too take this opportunity to warmly welcome my noble friend to the Dispatch Box as the Lord Privy Seal. I congratulate her on a well-deserved appointment to that position and wish her well.

I fully support the steps that my Government are taking to tackle the crisis of illegal migration, which was created substantially by the previous Government’s inaction and incompetent handling of the issue. That aside, the Statement by my right honourable friend the Prime Minister on it is reported in Hansard on Monday at cols. 369-70—I will not read it all out, but it is there for noble Lords to read. However, I will make the point that there is not one Member of your Lordships’ House who, if forced to leave his or her home because of persecution or conflict, would not expect to be able to seek asylum safely. That is not available to anyone who seeks asylum in Europe. I ask my noble friend: was the question of opening safe routes, so that refugees have an alternative to dangerous journeys, raised at all in the discussion with the EPC? There was much agreed, much discussed and much started, but was that touched on at all?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for his comments. I do not know all the details of what was discussed in the meeting, but yesterday I spoke to the Home Secretary, who told me that the meeting on migration lasted twice as long as was anticipated, such was the range of issues discussed and the willingness of countries to co-operate on that. This issue is quite complex and multifaceted in some ways. One of the reasons we want to ensure the £58 million for Africa and the Middle East that I spoke about is to tackle some of the root causes of why people flee their countries and seek asylum. We should address those issues—conflict, poverty or the effects of climate change—as they will have an impact on why people want to leave. I hope that some of them will be addressed. As I said, I do not have a full readout of the meeting, but it was very long and I am told that it was also very productive.