USAID Funding Pause

Debate between David Taylor and Brian Leishman
Tuesday 10th June 2025

(6 days, 18 hours ago)

Westminster Hall
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David Taylor Portrait David Taylor
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I will not, because I want to make a point; I find the moralising tone of my hon. Friend the Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman) a bit much. The reason the last Government were able to do what they did—slashing the aid budget, abolishing the Department for International Development and wrecking the economy—was that we have never had a weaker Opposition than we did when the hard left was sadly in charge of my party. Putin was emboldened, in part, by the hard left’s constant appeasement and apologism for the things he was doing, their downplaying of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and their suggestion that we send the sample from Salisbury back to Putin to test whether or not he was responsible.

Brian Leishman Portrait Brian Leishman
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Will my hon. Friend give way?