Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill [HL]

Lord Marland Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 21st November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure and a privilege to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town. I have sat on the International Agreements Committee with her for a number of years. She chaired it magnificently before handing back to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, who I think has found her a tough act to follow.

It is also a huge pleasure to see my noble friend the Foreign Secretary here. It is a boost for the House of Lords and for the international community. It is also a boost for those who play tennis with him, because during the fallow period his game has improved and we rather hope it will go back to the status quo. I worked closely with him on trade issues. In a moment of brilliance, he made me his trade envoy in his Government, putting trade at the heart of government. Between us we set up what is now the trade envoy network, which has been a successful cross-party network promoting trade across the world. I have therefore seen at first hand how, internationally, his status is so high. I have seen the energy he puts into international matters and the respect he is held in throughout the world, so we are incredibly lucky that he has chosen to give up an extremely comfortable and enjoyable life to return to public service.

It will be more comfortable here, as has been said by other noble Lords, but less comfortable as a lifestyle none the less. We wish my noble friend all the best—and, for heaven’s sake, this country needs a dynamic and vigorous Foreign Secretary. In my role as chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, I think I have done 45 flights this year—please do not tell the eco lobby this—all in the interest of international trade. Everywhere I go, the Foreign Office’s standing is diminishing. It is therefore critical that we have such a big hitter delivering for us in the world.

I also want to apologise in advance, because another thing that my noble friend made me do when I was working with him was to chair an Armed Forces charity. I am afraid that I am going to have to go to its huge celebration, which has long been in the diary, at the same time as him. I apologise to noble Lords if I have to leave at the same time as he does.

I shall not add to the comments that have been made by the excellent committee members who I have the honour and privilege of working with. I want to enhance the words of our chairman, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, who said that we are still very much scrutinising this matter and intend to give it a full wind. It would therefore be wrong for me to add anything more to those excellent comments, other than to say that it is a good start. As my noble friend Lord Frost says, it is a step in the right direction. It is a modest treaty but none the less a statement of intent.

Curiously enough, of the 12 countries now in the CPTPP, if we include the United Kingdom, seven are Commonwealth countries. I have told the great Trade Minister, my noble friend Lord Johnson, who is also a vigorous and dynamic man, that it is amazing to me that neither his department nor the Foreign Office has shown leadership in establishing a Commonwealth trade treaty. Why are we sitting on our backsides and not showing leadership in the world where we have an open goal, as my noble friend Lord Howell has said—many others would agree—of 56 English-speaking countries sharing so many interests?

When my noble friend the Foreign Secretary was Prime Minister he attended two CHOGMs, so he has been very much involved with the Commonwealth. Why are we not picking up the baton and showing real leadership in the world of international trade where, as my noble friend Lord Lamont ably put it, people are starting to put up trade barriers? As a parting gesture, and to make my speech as short as I possibly can, I put it to the Foreign Secretary and to the excellent Minister of Trade, my noble friend Lord Johnson, that this should become a priority.

Commonwealth

Lord Marland Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland (Con)]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to my noble friend Lord Howell for his kind and generous remarks, as I am to my noble friend Lord Goodlad. I agree with every single word my noble friend Lord Howell said, with one exception: Kigali was not about Heads of Government; it was about a business forum, which I was privileged to chair, a youth forum and a women’s forum. They were very vibrant events.

The business forum is an extraordinary event. Where else, apart perhaps from Davos, can you attract 1,700 businesses from 60 countries, 20 Heads of State, the president of the World Bank, the president of FIFA even and the secretary-general of the World Health Organization? It was an incredibly vibrant event, probably because there was pent-up tension after four years of us sitting with Covid and not meeting each other face to face, but also because it was in Africa. The Commonwealth had not been to an event like this in Africa for well over 10 years and it was a terrific credit to our hosts, the Rwandan Government, that it was such a resounding success.

Rwanda has proven to be a country of formidable leadership. It was safe, secure and clean and has a fast-growing economy lifting its people out of poverty. The statistics for trade in the Commonwealth and business are well known. It is 20% more competitive doing intra-Commonwealth trade because of common law, a common language and common trade agreements, and therefore the British Government should be well set to take benefit from it, but I am afraid to say that they have been asleep on their watch. They have inevitably been encumbered by the post-Brexit situation and subsequently Covid, but they have not taken full advantage of their last four years as chair in office.

That manifested itself in the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the extension of the Secretary-General’s contract where the UK led a campaign to change the Secretary-General, but it failed. The task ahead for the UK Government is to repair those bridges and play catch up. There are signs—I thank the Minister, who has been a stalwart supporter, and the noble Lord, Lord McDonald, who kept us afloat while we needed it by sending provisions down, and I am very grateful to them both—but the opportunity has been missed and we must now turbocharge the relationship.

We must ensure that the Commonwealth takes advantage of the showcases that are available. One of them, as the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, said, is the Commonwealth Games. Where I say there are signs of it happening, I am co-chairing with the Department for International Trade a business forum at that event which will involve the noble Lord’s university.

It is important that the UK now starts to prioritise the Commonwealth. It is not an alternative to the European Union, but it is a vast and available market. There are other problems ahead for the Commonwealth because Samoa is the chair in office designate. It will be a difficult place for people to visit—it is a long way from anywhere—but it that in itself is an opportunity. With the Chinese invasion of the Pacific, raised by my noble friend Lord Howell, Samoa could be a pivotal place for the UK and other Commonwealth countries to establish the power of democracy.

The second opportunity that presents itself is Sri Lanka, a country which is now on its knees with financial difficulties. It has sought succour from China for its investment. It gives western democratic countries, led by the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, an opportunity to support it and help it reinvigorate its economy.

Finally, there has never been any mention of empire, as the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, suggested—there was not for the three or five days in Kigali, I am happy to say. I am happy to say that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales arrived in triumph and left in triumph. That is one of the great advantages this country has, as well as the Minister who has carried out an excellent job on behalf of the Commonwealth for all these years.

Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021

Lord Marland Excerpts

Thursday 18th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Marland (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I am afraid that we are in danger of armchair meddling in an ancient tradition that is of benefit to our countryside. This is part of a continued onslaught on rural Britain and its management. It is not as if we are not living in a green and pleasant land. As my noble friend Lord Ridley says, many initiatives are taking place to maintain the ecosystem that is upland moorland.

The noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, clearly enunciates the cost if we do not continue this type of activity and what happens to flora and fauna if they are not managed properly by burning. I ask my noble friend the Minister to update the research, which is changing the whole time, and work further with the Moorland Association, which, after all, has greater knowledge of these matters than most in coming up with a pathway for the benefit of all concerned.