Official Development Assistance

Debate between Craig Whittaker and Dominic Raab

Thursday 26th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend, who has championed this cause relentlessly and with great passion and great eloquence. We are a global leader in this and we should be proud of it—I am proud of it. We are proud to be the Equal Rights Coalition co-chair with Argentina, and we are ambitious about what we can achieve through that strategy and the impact it will have. He talked about NGOs. Civil society has an incredibly important role to play, and we are committed to working with all the NGOs, including the United Kingdom Alliance for Global Equality, in the weeks and months ahead.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con) [V]]

Having experienced three 100-year floods within eight years, we are only too aware in the Calder Valley of how vital immediate emergency help is from Government. While I agree with the short-term reduction in international aid because of the massive generational cost of borrowing money, among other things, does my right hon. Friend agree that the UK should continue to be a major donor in addressing the worst humanitarian and natural disaster crises throughout the world?

[Dominic Raab]

As I have set out, that is of course one of the priorities that we will safeguard as we reduce the financial envelope. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I think there is cross-party consensus. For all the public criticism there sometimes is of the ODA spend, alleviating conflict and dealing with the aftermath of humanitarian disasters is what ODA should be spent on and what it should be prioritised for. That is what this Government and global Britain are all about.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Craig Whittaker and Dominic Raab

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that addressing the root causes of covid-19 and similar potential pandemics will require close co-operation with the international community, including China and other south-east-Asian partners. With that in mind, we welcome the Chinese Government’s decision on 24 February to make permanent the temporary ban on the trade and consumption of live wild animals.

[Craig Whittaker]

Many constituents are finding that unless Government travel advice advises against travel to a specific country or area, insurance companies do not pay out. Australia currently requires a two-week self-isolation period, but we are still not advising people not to travel there. What discussions is my right hon. Friend having with the insurance industry to make sure that constituents are covered in such situations?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The situation is moving very rapidly—to give him a sense of that, I should say that the Foreign Office made more than 200 changes to our travel advice over the last weekend alone. We have also published a checklist to help British travellers to think through the challenges of international travel and the questions they should ask about it. We are in contact with the airlines for the insurance reasons that my hon. Friend explained. As I mentioned, I will make a further statement after oral questions.

Covid-19

Debate between Craig Whittaker and Dominic Raab

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Lady raises a really important point. On the one hand, we do want commercial airlines to fly, but they are clearly under severe financial pressure, given the domestic restrictions being placed on them, and indeed other Governments, including our own, changing their travel advice. We will work with the airlines to see what support we can provide, and our priority continues to be to make sure that commercial flights can access as many areas as possible to get people back in the kind of scale and volume that is necessary to address the challenge we face.

[Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)]

It is good to know that we now have clarity on global travel over the next 30 days. To put constituents’ minds at rest, can my right hon. Friend confirm that travel agents and airlines should be issuing refunds to those cancelling travel arrangements over the next 30 days, not particularly the insurance companies?

[Dominic Raab]

I will not give legal advice or commercial advice to either the operators or the insurers, but I can tell my hon. Friend that the Transport Secretary has engaged very closely with all the different sectors to make sure that we protect the consumers—passengers—who find themselves at risk. Indeed, the Transport Secretary is nodding earnestly on that very point.