Low-income Countries: Debt Cancellation

Debate between Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Andrew Rosindell

Thursday 6th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, for the first time as a shadow Minister.

I commend the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous) for securing this debate. Constituency names have changed; I have always known him as the hon. Member for Enfield Southgate. He spoke with real passion today, and he brings with him knowledge and expertise about a topic that we must all focus on more carefully. It is a sensitive issue, and we must ensure we get it right. It should not be a party political issue; we should be looking for solutions. I think that today’s debate has contributed to that important discussion, so I thank him for securing it.

As has been mentioned, Britain is a nation that has always been known for its Christian compassion. At the same time, we have always advocated the principle of helping others to help themselves as the best pathway to providing long-term sustainability, particularly for developing nations, many of which have been mentioned in the debate.

So many contributions have been very powerful, particularly that of the hon. Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher), who spoke about Somaliland. I met representatives from Somaliland recently. It is so important that we use our knowledge and expertise to help developing countries to develop the type of economy that will generate wealth and prosperity. Having such debts around their necks will not help them to get out of their problems and become prosperous in the future. The hon. Gentleman drew on his expertise, and I commend him for it.

Others have spoken about issues such as colonialism. To be frank, I am not convinced that the hon. Member for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy) should focus on colonialism. There are other, more unifying things that we should talk about. Britain can lead the way in this if we get things right, but talking about Britain’s past wrongs—they are subjective, and there are a lot of good things that Britain has done—and tying everything to colonialism is a divisive route to go down. Let us look at solutions and advocate ideas that offer a way forward, rather than creating political division.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

This is not necessarily a divisive issue. When we ask those who are suffering the most from these matters, we find that they believe that it is difficult to move forward because of some of the wrongs that have been done to them in the past. It is simply about recognition and looking at ways to tackle this issue, and at how we can deliver recompense for the wrong that we have done. It is not about being divisive; it is just about accepting what went wrong and understanding that we have a duty to make it right.

Nationality and Borders Bill

Debate between Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Andrew Rosindell

Report stage
Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy]

I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend, and I am sure she will agree with me that, clearly, no lessons have been learned.

New clause 8 does not even ask the Government to scrap the fee, which is my personal preference; it just asks them to reduce it to cost and examine its impact on the rights of children. The new clause does, however, ask for the fee to be scrapped for children in care, for the obvious reason that children in care are the responsibility of the state. As we approach Christmas and we are thinking about families and home, with all the disadvantages that children in care face, the Government seem all too at ease with telling these children that they have no country to call home unless their local authority is willing to pay for it.

I spoke to children who were Lambeth care leavers and they told me horrific tales of threats of deportation to countries they have never been to because they cannot prove their link to their citizenship due to issues with their relations with their parents. Our cash-strapped local authorities cannot afford to keep paying these fees, and they are not border guards or immigration specialists who understand exactly what is happening.

The hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Anne McLaughlin) is absolutely right that there are parts of the citizenship section of the Bill that we appreciate, and things have been corrected. I spoke to the Immigration Minister earlier this week, and I was grateful for his time—I promised I would say something nice, and I did. If we are correcting all these other things, why would we not correct this policy now? We know exactly what the issue is. We know that the courts ruled, the Government appealed, and the courts ruled again that these fees are not in the best interests of children. This Bill is so horrible in so many other areas; is there not just one thing that we can all agree on? Just like with the Windrush scandal, why do the Government want to be dragged screaming into submission on something that they know is absolutely right?

I am glad to be standing here today, because I get to keep the promise that I made just before my election to a group of students from St Gabriel’s College who, along with Lambeth Citizens, explained to me their plight as children who were suffering in this way. I am proud to be a governor at their school, because they are what I call citizens. They are affected by this issue. Some of them have moved on, but they continue to fight for others in their place. I promised that I would stand up in the House and try to show that these young people are valued by their country—because this is their country. I hope that, when new clause 8—hopefully—goes to a vote, every other Member of this House will walk through the Lobby with me and show those young people that they have every single right to be here, that we will not continue to price them out, and that they should be able to access every single right, just like myself and the Prime Minister have been able to do.

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)]

I rise to speak to new clause 4, which would secure the right of abode of the brave and loyal servicemen who served Queen and country in the British military, in the Hong Kong Military Service Corps and the Hong Kong royal naval service corps, until 1997. They were servants of the Crown and I believe they should be treated equally to all those who have served in Her Majesty’s armed forces.