Iran: British-Iranian Prisoners
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 5 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, as I have already said, on the issue of the debt, we continue to explore options to resolve this case at the earliest opportunity, but that is all that I can say at this point.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)
My Lords, do the Government have a coherent policy towards dual nationals? Do we know how many dual nationals there are with a British nationality, and which other countries it is most commonly shared with? Do the Government have a clear policy towards the right of protection that we offer when they are back in their other countries of nationality? Do we intend allowing them to vote both in Britain and in their other country of nationality, regardless of where they are resident—for example, under the forthcoming EI Bill? Will the Government issue a White Paper on this?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, I think that I followed the train of the noble Lord’s question. He will be aware that Iran does not recognise dual nationalities. We are aware of all dual nationals, including those who hold more than two nationalities. As I said earlier, we do not go into the numbers, to protect those who are being held.
Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)
My Lords, parts of this integrated review read more like a party manifesto than a closely argued analysis of threats and capabilities. We learn a lot about the Prime Minister’s ambitious visions for the future but much less about how they are to be achieved.
Some sections invite satirical comment. Page 64 tells us:
“The UK is the nearest neighbour to the Arctic region.”
That will surprise the Governments of Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Canada and Russia—unless Boris Johnson is planning to imitate Donald Trump by making a takeover bid for Greenland.
Like others, I was struck by the many contradictions and inconsistencies in the document. It proclaims that Britain is a “soft power superpower” which benefits from the global reputation of the BBC, our world-class universities and the quality of our cultural life. It also underlines and emphasises the importance of integrating domestic and external policies. In domestic politics, however, Ministers are hostile to the BBC and dismiss and condemn university teachers, artists and writers as the core of the despised metropolitan liberal elite. Observers in other countries notice these attacks on such national assets, even if the Prime Minister’s vision is too short-sighted to recognise them.
There is a fundamental contradiction between the assertion of sovereignty as a core value and the representation of the UK as a champion of multilateralism, global order, human rights and international law. The Chinese are right to say that criticism of their treatment of the Uighurs is an invasion of their sovereignty. We defend global values against Chinese sovereignty. The British Empire could both assert its full sovereignty and impose its views on others, but we no longer have an empire and we cannot pretend to be world-leading in all the fields that the Prime Minister fondly imagines that we can. He should talk more about partnership and less about leadership.
The identification of Russia as the most direct threat to British security is undermined by the priority given to the Indo-Pacific. Almost the only reference to the European Union—as has been remarked—states that the UK will
“find new ways of working with it on shared challenges”
but it does not tell us what those new ways might be. Later, it says:
“We will also look for ways to work more closely with European partners, including France and Germany.”
Ministers should not have to look very far: the UK has had a bilateral defence partnership with France since 1998, although Conservative Ministers have done their best not to tell Parliament about it since 2010. Indeed, one Defence Secretary told me directly that he accepted close co-operation with France provided that Parliament knew as little about it as possible.
The claim that the UK will become the European power with the strongest presence in the Indo-Pacific is also an exaggeration: the French are there already with territories, citizens, armed forces and diplomats. In winding up, therefore, will the Minister commit the Government to informing Parliament about the current state of the Franco-British defence partnership and plans for its future development? A review that devotes so much more attention to relations with India than with our nearest continental neighbour—Europe’s other military and global power—is not an entirely serious document.
Clergy: EU Visas and Residence Permits
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, as I have already said in response to an earlier question, we are working very closely with the Church of England. We have set up a specific fund that helps to support UK citizens and are working with partner organisations, of which the Church of England is one, on the programme that the noble Lord has raised. I will write to him on the specifics of that.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, I want to press the Minister on reciprocity. There are expatriate communities in this country that also have religious services—the Swedish Church in London, in which I have sung, and other Lutherans; French and Polish congregations; Jewish congregations with visitors from the continent—so there are clear mutual interests. Are we negotiating on the basis of reciprocity or are we asking for greater freedom of access for UK citizens in the EU than for EU citizens in the UK?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord raises an important issue on reciprocal arrangements. There are a whole range of areas where we have seen reciprocal arrangements put in place. The whole purpose of the Specialised Committee on Citizens’ Rights, which is supported both by the UK and by the EU—officials are meeting regularly—is to unlock those very issues that can provide for the kind of access that he is suggesting.
United States: Diplomatic Relations
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to conduct their diplomatic relations with the Government of the United States on the basis of sovereign equality.
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)
My Lords, we look forward to deepening the close alliance between our two sovereign nations. At the G7 meeting on 19 February we welcomed President Biden’s reaffirmation of the centrality of the transatlantic partnership in dealing with the challenges the world faces. We will work closely with the Biden Administration through our presidency of the G7 and COP 26 this year. With so many commonalities between us, we are confident that the UK/US relationship will continue to prosper and strengthen.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Frost, the Prime Minister and others have declared that sovereign equality is a vital principle for becoming global Britain once more. I assume it ought to apply to all relations with other countries, which suggests we should renegotiate some of the structurally unequal aspects of the US/UK relationship, such as the status of US bases in Britain and the arrangements on extradition. Or do we need an alternative concept for the US/UK special relationship: sovereign dependence?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, our partnership with the US reflects some of the points that the noble Lord has raised and yes, that includes defence and security. The bases in the United Kingdom underline the importance of not just the UK/US relationship but of our working together in partnership to strengthen institutions such as NATO.
The UK’s Relationship with the Pacific Alliance (International Relations Committee Report)
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 9 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, I welcome this report, with reservations. The UK has neglected relations with Latin American countries since the last war. There have been periodic attempts to increase our commitment, and to reverse the decline in trading and investment links, but we have continued to lag far behind Germany and others in the intensity of our relations with most countries in the region.
I have often acted as a guide in singing tours of Westminster Abbey, where I walk over the tomb of Admiral Lord Cochrane, who at one point commanded the Chilean navy and helped found the Peruvian fleet. Britain has strong historical ties with Latin America that we have let decline. As a policy analyst working on transatlantic relations, I have attended conferences in Chile and Mexico, and have also visited Peru. The members of the Pacific Alliance are significant states. On any definition of global Britain, we should be paying more attention to relations with Latin American states and markets, but we should not fall into the trap of assuming that trade with Latin America can somehow replace trade with the European continent; nor fall into the illusion that economic integration among South American countries is an easier process to commit the UK to than any European one. I recall when I was a young academic, 50 years ago, the optimism of Mexican economists about the prospects for the Latin American Free Trade Association and other regional schemes. These failed or stagnated as regimes changed in different South American states.
The noble Lord, Lord Howell, is correct to argue that the UK needs to pay more attention to the Pacific as a region—with the rapidly growing economies of east and south-east Asia now acting as the dynamo of global growth, and with the rise of China creating new economic and security challenges—but we need to beware of overemphasising the prospect of Britain becoming a major commercial or military player in the Pacific; nor should we see commitment to Pacific co-operation as an alternative to continued engagement with European states and markets and across the wider European neighbourhood to the Mediterranean and Africa. The enthusiasm with which the Secretary of State for International Trade has just announced the UK’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership contrasts sharply with her antagonism towards the European Union. The CPTPP, if it develops into a serious economic grouping, which is not yet clear, will compromise UK sovereignty on issues such as animal welfare, regulation of chemicals, and investor protection. It is not clear to me why such limits on sovereignty should be more acceptable to our Government in the Pacific than across the North Sea.
The Pacific Alliance is only a small player on the fringes of the Pacific region. One of its four members is not yet a member of the CPTPP. China and the USA are its dominant external partners. The EU as a whole is less important to it. Britain, as the report notes, sends less than 1% of its exports to it. A determined export drive might raise this to 2% or even 3%.
Some of the comments in the report seem questionable. We are told about the
“importance of defence co-operation between the UK and Chile”.
Is that really important compared with our defence co-operation with France and the Netherlands, which our Government attempt to hide from their own people? It is suggested that these countries should be encouraged to have closer relations with the Commonwealth, but we are not told why or how the UK will explain the value of that to the Commonwealth’s African neighbours.
Yes, we should work harder to develop trade and investment with these and other Latin American countries. No, this is not a major element in the new global Britain that the Prime Minister has promised to recreate—to make Britain great again, in his Trumpian phraseology. We await the overdue integrated review of foreign and security strategy to learn about the Government’s vision of Britain’s global role after Brexit, in which closer relations with these four states should have a significant but small part.
EU Ambassador to the UK: Diplomatic Status
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, the EU’s representation and that of EU member states is very much a matter for the European Union and those member states.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, I follow on from the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Robathan. We have talked about the importance of sovereign equality in our relations with the European Union, so do we intend to accept that our representation in Brussels should be reduced both in status and in size? As a point of comparison, the United States regards its representation in Brussels as one of its most important; it is also one of its largest. Do we not think that ours should be similar?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord. I am sure that he will recognise, from his time as a Minister at what was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the appointment of the new ambassador to the Permanent Mission at the European Union, who is a very capable official and acts at a very senior level. Indeed, he was centrally involved in the discussions on the new agreement that we have reached with our European Union friends.
Alexei Navalny
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, I believe that I have already addressed, in part, the issues of human rights and sanctions, and of course I will be talking to the noble Lord as we bring forward some of the broader sanction applications. On the report, we have acted. I have already alluded to legislation, and we continue to step up our activity, both domestically and internationally, to tackle illicit finance. The National Crime Agency has increased the number of investigations into corrupt leads and, among other things, the UK has used existing immigration powers in dozens of cases relating to hostile state activity. We will also review all tier 1 investor visas granted before 5 April 2015.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, we all recognise that the UK, as a democracy, is far more open to Russian influence than Russia is to British. Does the Minister agree that Russian interference, including finance in British politics, is at least as severe a threat to UK sovereignty as the European Court of Justice? Does he accept that the Government’s response to the ISC report is widely considered to have been “defensive and uninformative”? Can the Government assure us that they are working actively to tighten the law on foreign agents in British politics, on financial contributions from abroad to political parties and on espionage?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, I can give the noble Lord that assurance. On the question of interference in elections, he will be aware that various legal matters are already under way, so I cannot speak specifically to those. On the other matters that he raised, I have already said that we are acting, and will be responding, and have already taken steps, as our response to the ISC report has demonstrated.
International Soft Power Strategy: Role of BBC
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(3 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the role of the BBC in their international soft power strategy.
The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)
My Lords, the BBC plays an important role in promoting our values globally through its independent and impartial broadcasting. It is a central part of British soft power and influence. The role of soft power is being considered as part of the integrated review of security, defence, development and foreign policy. This will be informed by the conclusions of the cross-government work already undertaken on our strategic approach to this area.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, what steps are the Government taking to co-ordinate their domestic approach to the BBC with their international soft power strategy? Does the Minister not consider that the repeated criticism of the BBC by Ministers, including the Prime Minister, and the right-wing press weakens the standing of the BBC and its reputation abroad?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Con)
My Lords, as I already said in my original Answer, we recognise as a Government the important role the BBC plays and continue to support its work around the world. Since 2016, the Government have invested heavily in the BBC, with over £370 million of funding. We continue to recognise the important role it plays on the world stage.
Treaty Scrutiny: Working Practices (EUC Report)
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(4 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, I was struck by the quotation from Walter Bagehot’s volume, The English Constitution, in paragraph 8 of the most recent report we are debating. He clearly stated 150 years ago:
“Treaties are quite as important as most laws, and to require the elaborate assent of representative assemblies to every word of the law, and not to consult them even as to the essence of the treaty, is prima facie ludicrous.”
This is not a new issue. Long before the huge expansion of treaties and international agreements that we have seen since 1945, 19th-century constitutional authorities considered Parliament’s role in scrutinising treaties before and after they had been signed to be inadequate. Bagehot saw Crown prerogative as unjustified and outdated on treaties long before any of us were born.
The Vote Leave campaign fought the 2016 referendum with a promise to restore parliamentary sovereignty. This Vote Leave Government are now determined instead to restore executive sovereignty, and to put Parliament back in its box. Yesterday and today, No. 10 has been briefing that UK sovereignty entitles the Government unilaterally to reinterpret international agreements that they have recently signed. Treaties limit national sovereignty. If you assert an absolutist interpretation of sovereignty, as the noble Lord, Lord Frost, has stated in recent speeches, no other Government will trust you to observe international agreements.
There are those on the hard right of American law and politics who deny that international law can override American decisions because of the exceptional nature of the US constitution. But however exceptional our Government think England is, they should be wary of undermining trust in our observance of agreements, whether on Northern Ireland, human rights or commercial regulation. If our Government assert their unilateral sovereignty, no deal with the EU will be followed by no deals with a lot of other countries.
Nine months ago, the Conservative manifesto promised to
“look at the broader aspects of our constitution”
and
“set up a Constitution, Democracy & Rights Commission”.
No. 10 briefings now suggest that the Government have also made a U-turn on this and instead want only to address specific judicial and other issues. But the scale of the transformation of our international obligations and commitments, now we have left the European Union, requires adjustments in our constitutional arrangements which any Government committed to the maintenance of constitutional democracy should address.
The reports we are debating also note that the issues to be covered in future trade arrangements will require an extension of co-determination with the devolved Governments if we are to avoid drifting into a position where England emerges from a broken union, sovereign over only a shrunken country. In the light of her speech, I remind the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, that constitutional arrangements which may suit your own Government when you are in power must be strong enough to work when other Governments are in power.
The Prime Minister looks to Australia and New Zealand as models for our future relationship with the European Union, as well as for recruits to advise the Government. The Parliaments of both countries have trade committees which play “a significant role”, as Alexander Downer told the Constitution Committee. Our Government should not resist this Parliament gaining similar significance in scrutinising treaties.
Libya
Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts(4 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that the UN arms embargo on Libya needs to be respected. We take very seriously any reports of breaches of the embargo. They are considered by the UN sanctions committee, of which the UK is a member.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD) [V]
My Lords, the Government now have some hundreds of British troops in other parts of the Sahel working closely with the French in combating tribal warfare and Islamic extremism. How far does the conflict in Libya, with the explosion in the number of weapons there, spill over to the rest of the Sahel? Do we share the view of the French and the UAE that the Muslim Brotherhood is promoting extremism which may also spill over into the rest of the Sahel?
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
My Lords, as the noble Lord knows well, Islamist extremism is a scourge of not just that region but globally, and we should take all the steps necessary to ensure that it does not add to an already very long and bloody conflict in Libya.