Official Development Assistance and the British Council

Christian Wakeford Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Anthony Mangnall]

With the greatest respect, the policing budget is not being cut. In addition, my hon. Friend is trying to make the point that by cutting the international aid budget he is going to see that money in Rother Valley—he is not. That money will go back into the Treasury. I go back to the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield about how small this is in terms of Treasury percentages and spending.

I asked my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) earlier what temporary would look like and he said a year. I respectfully say to the Government that if they come to the Dispatch Box and say that it is a year I will acquiesce, I will sit down, and I will accept that a year’s cut is what needs to be done. I would argue that many other Members would do so, too. Unfortunately, we have found ourselves in something of a predicament. The announcement of the cut from 0.7% to 0.5% was made off the cuff at such rapid speed that organisations such as War Child and the HALO Trust, to name just two out of many hundreds, had their budgets cut and their international programmes jeopardised.

[Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Con)]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about the speed of the cuts announcement, which is compounded by the cut due to the decrease in GNI. This has been a tremendous cut affecting the most needy across the entire globe. Like he said, if we can have a commitment that this is for one year and one year only, many, including Members from the 2019 intake, will sit down and back off.

[Anthony Mangnall]

That is incredibly welcome to hear. My hon. Friend is right: there has been a double whammy in the reduction. International organisations have to deal with not only the cut itself but the overall GNI reduction. It is in place to make sure that in good years more money is available and in bad years less, thereby making the argument that we take stock of the economic situation. The point was also made by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish), who made the suggestion about the WaterAid programmes.

I am not against reform. I believe that we should be able to reform the ODA rules. I would love to see it spent in different ways that are more transparent and accountable. Many Members have made that point. Let us not take it down to 0.5%, but look at how we can reform it. Taking it from a single calendar year to a multi-year funding period of three or four years would give us the opportunity to look at different options so we can justify it to our constituents.

I believe that global Britain is about four things: defence, diplomacy, trade and development. All four are integrated. Failure to act and to work on one impacts the other. Our two aircraft carriers sailing around the world are hopefully unlikely to see conflict, but there is a humanitarian assistance vessel right there that could be used within our ODA budget. We must look at the impact on those different areas. Our aid pays for our security, as I have already mentioned. It is what stops terrorist organisations from across the world being able to flourish unencumbered.

We heard many from across the House say that if we led on this issue others would follow. They did. Many European countries have followed and are now reaching 0.7% targets. Canada has increased its target. America has increased its spending by £16 billion. We were leading. I ask about the message it sends to the world. In a year in which we host the G7 and COP26, and will have a good presence at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, we have the opportunity to lead by example.

[Anthony Mangnall]

I would respectfully say to all of my hon. Friend’s constituents—I am happy to speak at any association event in the future—that their lives are no less valuable. What we are doing here is taking money from Peter to pay Paul. We must be honest about the value.

[Christian Wakeford]

I cannot speak for the people of Rother Valley, but to me going back to the people of Bury South and saying we support this says that we are compassionate and kind, and that we keep our promises. That is something I am proud of. That is something I want to stick up for. I want to go home and be able to tell my daughter that I did the right thing.

[Anthony Mangnall]

Quite right. If I had children I would be going back to say exactly the same thing—all to come, I am sure.

The debate is also about the British Council. I have lived in Singapore and I have worked in Nigeria. I have seen the value of these organisations. I have seen the value of soft power for the United Kingdom. I look back on 2012, a moment in which the UK exhibited its global superpower soft power. We were able to show that we were leading across the world. I hate that we are going down this route and reducing the two things that promote us in the best way.

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[Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con)]

The Government would have us believe that the backdrop to this debate is the impact of covid, with the knock-on financial pressures requiring departmental budgets to be cut or correspondingly slimmed. There are indeed unprecedented financial pressures, but the overseas aid budget has a built-in mechanism to cater for any financial challenge, as we all know, because it reflects the GNI of the day. Yet here we are, the only G7 country to cut its aid budget, with dire consequences for programmes across the world and, as a P5 nation, a huge hit to our soft power credentials. We will be leaving vacuums to be filled by nations with very different agendas, or indeed by extremist groups exploiting the lack of governance.

The messaging has already been touched on, but I will just repeat the point that the Government should lead the narrative, not follow a populist and dated view of ODA spending. Let us explain to the British people what this is all about. This is what we are good at—we excel at it—and when we do well, other nations follow.

[Christian Wakeford]

Part of the problem with judging by a poll is the language used. If it asks, “Do you want a cut in international aid?”, people will say yes. However, if it asks, “Do you want to feed the world’s hungriest and support those most in need?”, I am sure that, being a generous and kind country, we would also say yes.

[Mr Ellwood]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and indeed I would go further and say that not only is that what we do, but it is required.

I come to this debate today to add a defence and security perspective. Hard power and soft power cannot be seen in isolation; they are two sides of the same coin. If our failure in Afghanistan, where we are now essentially giving up and going home, should teach us anything, it is that we cannot build and maintain peace by military means alone.

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[Christian Wakeford (Bury South) (Con)]

Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley), I anticipated having three minutes and, somehow, I now have eight minutes. Unlike her, I have since written more notes and now have the difficulty of trying to read my own writing.

I rise to recognise the UK’s global reputation for delivering life-saving aid, to warn of the risks resulting from a reduction to the 0.7% target and to offer ideas for maximising the UK’s support for the world’s most vulnerable through the next decade and beyond. However, I start by paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall), who made the important point that it is about the four aspects of defence, trade, development and diplomacy all working together. Like four wheels on a car, we cannot get to our destination without all four working at the same time.

We need to consider the impact of development on trade, the impact of development on defence and the impact of development on diplomacy, and likewise in reverse. There needs to be a more holistic view of what we can do to be a truly global Britain.

Aid is a British success story. We are recognised as global experts and have achieved incredible results. Since 2015, we have helped 14 million children access education, and we have helped 6 million girls. When leadership was needed to address covid-19 in poorer countries, the UK stepped forward, committing over half a billion pounds and 100 million vaccine doses to the COVAX initiative. We have led the world in tackling violence against women and girls, by launching the preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative—again, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes—and funding innovative new programmes.

Aid spending is also an investment in our global reputation. It establishes us as respected and trusted international partners, which can only help in our mission to secure trade deals that will benefit the constituents of every Member in this House, including mine in Bury South.

With generous and effective aid spending and a global diplomatic presence comes our soft power and soft influence, which places the UK at the heart of critical debates and gives us the legitimacy and ability to guide international action on key global challenges such as climate change. When the UK speaks on such issues, the world listens.

It is with concern, therefore, that we witness the slashing of aid budgets, eroding this proud legacy and, ultimately, costing lives. We have made a commitment to ensuring 12 years of quality education for girls and, as a founding member of the International Parliamentary Network for Education, this is something of which I am immensely proud, yet our aid cuts leave 700,000 girls without access to education.

We have pledged to prevent 20 million people from experiencing catastrophic famine, but we have cut our funding to Yemen, a country on the brink of famine, by nearly 60%.

The cuts are not going unnoticed by our friends or, more importantly, our adversaries. The UN Secretary-General has described the aid cuts as a “death sentence”. My right hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) said that the recruiting sergeants of Hezbollah, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, ISIS and other armed militia across the globe will be the immediate beneficiaries of the cuts to the UK’s humanitarian programmes. China and Russia are watching, and they will not hesitate to fill the vacuum we are creating and destabilise more regions across the globe.

With an eye on the development of the UK’s new international development strategy, I will finish with three recommendations. First, let us use the strategy to announce a return to spending 0.7% of GNI on aid and to signal to our G7 and G20 allies that Britain can be a force for good and a trusted international partner.

Secondly, let us focus our aid on where it is needed most. The International Rescue Committee’s analysis shows that 20 countries, mostly conflict-afflicted, currently host 85% of the 235 million people in need of humanitarian assistance globally. Maintaining our commitment to spending 50% of ODA in fragile and conflict-afflicted countries provides the greatest opportunity to drive down humanitarian need and ensure value for taxpayers’ money.

Finally, let us unleash the power of integrating diplomacy and development. We are permanent members of the UN Security Council, NATO, the G7, the G20 and Five Eyes. We have a global diplomatic network. In short, we have clout. When we speak, the world rightly listens, but our world-leading diplomacy should lead efforts to reduce suffering, to foster peace in conflicts like Yemen, to remove barriers that deny humanitarian aid to those who need it, and to hold to account those who attack civilians and violate international law.

I am proud of Britain, and I am proud of a global Britain, especially in a post-Brexit world. I am proud of the values we stand for and the progress that we have made through our aid spending, and I am sure I will be proud of what we achieve in future years, too, as soon as we go back to 0.7%. As we recover from covid, the next big thing to focus on is climate change. Again, 0.7% is fundamental to addressing climate change.

These results will come only if we retain our aid spending. Restoring the budget is not just the right thing to do morally, it is the right thing to do for the UK’s national interest. Let us return to 0.7% and return to doing what we do best.

I close by saying that Britain keeps its promises; let us do so again. In this House we often say anecdotally that it is country, constituency and then party. This may not be the popular thing in the country, in my constituency or in my party, but it is the right thing to do.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

We now come to the wind-up speeches and, by video link, Chris Law.

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[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), who chairs the International Development Committee, and the Backbench Business Committee for securing this debate, and all Members across the House who supported the application. It has been a very good debate, with some powerful contributions from across the House. It has been good to be back in this place actually having a proper debate, with people engaging and asking questions. We hope to see more of that in this place as we go forward.

We heard powerful comments from the Chair of the Committee about the lack of transparency over these cuts, their public financial illiteracy and their impact.

The former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), spoke powerfully about not looking at things in silos, how things such as modern slavery and girls’ education are intimately connected, and the impact of these cuts on the UK’s clout on the world stage.

The Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling (Tom Tugendhat), said that these cuts will undermine Britain’s bilateral ties and are a mistake when we should be making an impact around the world.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Rushanara Ali) spoke about the impact of the cuts on food insecurity when famine is on the rise, and on the joint economic and health crises that the world faces. I will return to that point.

The former International Development Secretary, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), made an extraordinarily powerful and persuasive speech. He was absolutely right to say that the Government are, in fact, the ones rebelling—against their own manifesto commitments. He spoke about the absurdity of cutting organisations such as UNICEF and UNFPA, and the work on neglected tropical diseases, at a time when that work is more crucial than ever.

The hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) made a powerful case about the absurd closures that the British Council now faces, leaving it £10 million short; my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) spoke powerfully about that issue the other day.

My right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Liam Byrne) talked about the incoherence of the cuts, and the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) spoke about their stark impact on our fellow human beings in some of the worst humanitarian catastrophes, and said that polling shows that the British public want us to support action in those circumstances.

The hon. Member for West Worcestershire (Harriett Baldwin), who is a former Minister, said that the most powerful poll that would matter in this place would be having a meaningful vote, as Mr Speaker and as so many Members across the House have requested. That meaningful vote is not tonight, despite what the Prime Minister and the Leader of the House tried to suggest the other day.

The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Mrs Latham) spoke about the powerful and damaging impact that the cuts will have on women, family planning, water and sanitation, and my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) said that the cuts were morally reprehensible.

I was proud to have my hon. Friend the Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) in my team for a while. She made a powerful and passionate speech, making it clear that poverty is political and this is about political choices—not party political choices, but choices that this House should be making on issues of such national and international importance.

The former Secretary of State for Scotland, the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell), spoke about the impact of the cuts on nutrition—the 80% cuts to malnutrition programmes. In the other place, my noble Friend Lord Collins has been speaking passionately about this issue for so long, and I know that he works with the right hon. Gentleman on it.

My hon. Friend the Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West) talked about the impact on global health research. How absurd to be cutting global health research, given the benefits not just of finding a vaccine for covid, but also of the work on malaria, HIV and neglected tropical diseases. The role that British universities and British health science are playing in that research is now being put at risk again, and that is absolutely absurd.

The hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) spoke about the tiny amount that this money represents compared with the total borrowing that we have seen, for example, to deal with the covid pandemic. He said that we have to look at wider health systems globally to deliver beyond vaccines, including on issues such as clean water.

Again, another Government Member, the right hon. Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale), spoke incredibly powerful. He asked why on earth we are cutting pandemic-preventing programmes and spoke about the literally life or death decisions that are now being made.

My hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) made a typically strong speech about the job cuts at the British Council, and the hon. Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) gave a fantastic and incredibly well informed speech about the practical implications of the cuts. He rightly challenged some of his colleagues, including the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford), on the impact that the will have on the Commonwealth; these cuts are going to have an impact on Commonwealth countries and on countries that want to join the Commonwealth, such as South Sudan. They will have an impact on places such as Rwanda, on which the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield ran a fantastic programme over many years, which many of his colleagues attended.

The hon. Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) rightly said that the British Council represents some of the best of Britain—why on earth are we cutting it? And the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) absolutely nailed it on the head: British people are kind and humanitarian. Why on earth we would want to make cuts when we see the scenes from places such as Yemen? I have friends working out there at the moment for the United Nations and Médecins Sans Frontières—British citizens out there on the frontlines, taking that action. How on earth are we cutting such provision at this time? It is unbelievable.

The Chair of the Defence Committee, the right hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), gave a very powerful speech. He rightly pointed out the damage to Britain’s strategic interests in the world. That is space that will be taken by others—our adversaries, those who wish this country ill and have a very different vision of how this world should be. Why on earth we are retreating when they are advancing is beyond me.

The hon. Member for Bury South (Christian Wakeford) gave an absolutely excellent speech.

[Christian Wakeford]

I intend to be helpful, but also to correct my own record: although I paid tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall), I failed to pay tribute to the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), not only for introducing this important debate, but for all the work that she has been doing on preventing sexual violence against women across the globe.

[Stephen Doughty]

I completely concur. Drawing on what the hon. Gentleman said, I want to be absolutely clear that the Opposition believe that global Britain can and must be a force for good in this world, doing our fair share and our moral duty but also acting in our common and national interest, particularly given the rapidly changing and volatile global power dynamics.

I am proud to have worked at the former Department for International Development and with some of our leading British humanitarian organisations. I have seen the incredible work that our aid and our organisations have done around the world; I pay tribute to all of them. I am deeply saddened that they are now having to scrabble around to deal with the cuts, which are being introduced in such an irresponsible way. I will give two contrasting examples.

We have done incredibly positive work on vaccines. I welcome the incredible work of our Oxford and AstraZeneca teams in developing that vaccine and the fact that we are delivering vaccines around the world, although far more are needed, as we said at the time of the G7. However, those vaccines can be delivered effectively only when they have strong health systems behind them—when we have surveillance, when we are looking at genomic sequencing, and when we are supporting nurses, doctors and those who put those vaccines in arms around the world. Doing the one without the other is not enough.

We have just done fantastic work supporting the elections in Somaliland, which was mentioned earlier. The Minister knows of my strong connections with Somaliland; I declare my interests. There is fantastic work supporting democracy and development there, but I want to see it go further—I want to see a British Council office opened in Hargeisa. That seems pretty unlikely, given the cuts to the British Council across the world at a time when we should be increasing our influence in countries where we have strong historical ties that are also of key strategic importance.

The impact of the pandemic is absolutely immense, in this country and globally. Let us be clear: not just poverty is on the rise, but all the other misery associated with it. The World Health Organisation reports that 70% of surveyed countries have had significant decreases in the number of routine immunisations other than for covid. Some 80 million infants are at risk of missing vaccinations for measles, polio and diphtheria. We will see 6.3 million more cases of TB, adding 1.4 million deaths from that terrible disease. It is likely that 50 million children in Pakistan and Afghanistan will now not receive a polio vaccine. STOPAIDS has stated that 11.5 million people have now had inconsistent access to crucial antiretroviral treatments and therapies, which has put their lives at risk—as you know, Mr Deputy Speaker, I do much work as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on HIV and AIDS.

Gender-based violence is on the rise, with an additional 31 million cases predicted. Some 9.7 million students are at risk of dropping out of school, and 11 million girls are at risk of not coming back to school because of covid. The UN estimates that 132 million people could fall into food insecurity and famine. That will only be exacerbated by the climate crisis that we already know is having an impact and is coming.

For those reasons, not one of the other G7 nations has decreased its official development assistance. In fact, most are increasing their spending, including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Finland. The hon. Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley) gave a long list of countries; I could give a long list of countries that are doing the exact opposite of what we are doing at the moment and that look aghast at it.

Let us look at one of the situations we face. The Minister knows of the very serious situation in Ethiopia, which I have raised with him. There have been some very volatile developments in the past few days. Millions are at risk from famine and conflict and there are some truly horrific reports, yet we do not have clarity on what is happening with UK funding to Ethiopia at this critical time. The Minister spoke the other day about diversion of funds, but we are not clear whether UK funding will be increasing in response to the demand or decreasing. I hope that he can clarify that.

I note that the Minister has a Ghanaian flag on his mask. What will happen to programmes in Ghana? An organisation called Tools for Self Reliance has told us that it is losing a three-year programme that would have helped 1,000 women in Ghana, because of the cuts being introduced by the Minister’s Department. We see the LGBT+ community under attack in Ghana. What will happen to our human rights programmes supporting marginalised communities across the world? What will happen, for example, to the crucial replenishments on global slavery that the former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Maidenhead, mentioned? I will also mention the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Will we keep our commitments going forward?

We have heard again and again from those on both sides of the House about the damage that these cuts will bring, and I want to commend those who have spoken out. It is always difficult to speak out against your own Government and your own party. I have not been afraid to do that when I think we have got things wrong, as the Minister will know. But it is right to do that, and this is Parliament at its best. That is why we need to have a vote on these issues: these voices need to be heard.

I want to talk briefly about the public financial illiteracy of this. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact, set up by the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield, has rightly pointed out the absurd way in which the cuts were brought about. One paragraph from its report paints a perfect picture. It states:

“Value for money risks were further exacerbated by the speed at which the Star Chambers process took place…aid-spending departments were given five to seven working days to prepare proposals for the 30% budget cuts. The proposals were reviewed, revised and approved by ministers over four virtual meetings totalling just seven hours. One of the officials we interviewed described it as ‘like doing a handbrake turn with an oil tanker’.”

That is not a sensible way to be handling hard-earned taxpayers’ money or the public finances of this country. Whatever we think about the amounts, that is not the way we should be doing things. It is simply absurd.

We have also heard about the contradictions relating to other areas of international policy, including defence, trade and diplomacy. It seems absolutely absurd, at a time when British troops are on the frontline in the Sahel working with our allies to defeat jihadist extremists, that we would cut aid from that region, which will only fall into further crisis in the months and years to come. That is absolutely absurd.

Lastly, I want to turn to the British Council. It has rightly been referred to as one of the most vital components of UK soft power, working in over 100 countries and reaching 80 million people a year with arts, culture and education programmes. For much of the world, the British Council provides the first direct relationship with this country and with our values, our culture and our language. It attracts students, workers, future business leaders and even future leaders. That represents incredible soft power, and incredible relationships and partnerships. The hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay spoke powerfully about this, and he has also said in the media that reducing the British Council’s international presence and retreating on the global stage will do damage to our soft power, which is not compatible with the Government’s foreign policy priorities as set out in the integrated review. I urge the Government to think again.

I want to conclude by asking the Minister a few crucial questions. He says that we are going to reverse this and go back to 0.7%. Well, when are we going to do that? Answer that question, Minister. When will we get transparency on the individual cuts to individual programmes in individual countries? We have put down parliamentary question after parliamentary question, but they have been completely blocked by Ministers refusing to answer and refusing to give clarity. Many countries and organisations are unable to plan or to think forward because the Government are not clear about what is happening.

My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill), the shadow International Trade Secretary, has written today to the Foreign Secretary asking for clarity on a whole series of measures and on when that information will be made available to the House. When will we have that meaningful vote that the Speaker rightly called for and that Members across the House have called for today? It is crucial that we have that vote so that the House can have its say.

In conclusion, let us be clear that this is a double whammy. Our aid would have gone down anyway because it is a percentage, so, as the economy shrank, the amount we were giving would have been reduced. But the Government have doubled down on that; they want to go even further and do even more damage. This is morally wrong, and it is financially illiterate. It is damaging to our soft power reputation while others are on the rise. It is reversing at a critical time for the world, and it is out of step with the House, with those on the Government’s own side and with the public, according to the most recent polls. Britain is and can be so much better than this. This is one of the things that could unite us in this House and unite us as a country at a time when critical threats and challenges are facing the world and facing all human beings, whether they are British or from other countries. I urge the Government to think again on these cuts.