Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda: Ebola Outbreak

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

There is nothing that the noble Lord just said for me to disagree with. I can assure him, though, that two cases were identified in Kampala and the others tested have been negative. He is absolutely right about the development of a vaccine.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, further to my noble friend’s question, we know what positive impact UK official development assistance has in crises such as these. Will the Minister rule out any further cuts to UK ODA in this Parliament?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

If it were for me to rule it out, I would do so right now, but the noble Lord is right about the impact of UK official development assistance. That is what it is for, which is why we have responded quite so quickly. We were the first donors to get in there and make these very fast decisions, as soon as the outbreak was identified. We are good at working with these agencies. Health is a priority for us and this is exactly what our development assistance ought to be used for.