Commonwealth Day

James Duddridge Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Westminster Hall

[Sir James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Commonwealth Day.

It is a privilege and it gives me extreme pleasure to serve under your esteemed and excellent chairmanship, Mr Gray; I know you will appreciate the sincerity of my words.

I apologise for being here today, not only because of the content of my speech but because you were expecting my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Dame Maria Miller), who sadly cannot be here due to a more recent commitment going into her diary urgently. I want to facilitate a wide debate on the Commonwealth while particularly concentrating on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s international branch and some technical issues around the branch’s status that we are making progress on.

I should not have to remind the House that the second Monday in March is Commonwealth Day—a day of great celebration and a second birthday for parliamentarians across a third of the world. I am pleased to see the Minister in her rightful place; it is a pleasure to work with her in yet another format.

I looked back on previous debates on Commonwealth Day, conscious of vague memories of participating in them as a Back Bencher, as chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and, in 2021, as the Minister responding to the debate. I started by reading the first paragraph of the 2021 debate in Hansard, which was taken up entirely not with Commonwealth matters but with matters to do with covid, including how we were to behave and rules on virtual participation; how far we have moved forward since then. I skipped to the back, which is always the most interesting place, where my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset (Mr Liddell-Grainger) was summarising his comments, and something leapt out at me. Not only was there a reference to Emilia Lifaka, who at the time was chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and Deputy Speaker in Cameroon and has since sadly passed away; there was also a glancing reference to the late Sir David Amess, my parliamentary neighbour. My hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset, in characteristic form, was praiseful; he said that Sir David made a lot of “good points”. He somewhat undermined that, however, by going on to say that he did not understand a word of what they were.

I leapt forward, ignoring my studies of the Commonwealth to reminisce about Sir David, who rightly started by saying to the Chair:

“Today, I will not be calling for city status for Southend, because I know that will happen in any case, but I will be celebrating with others Commonwealth Day”—[Official Report, 16 March 2021; Vol. 691, c. 65WH.]

and he did, drawing on great experience of visits and a relationship with two Commonwealth countries that are slightly off the beaten track. He made very specific points and demonstrated some of the best assets of Members of Parliament getting involved with Commonwealth countries.

While it was sad to see the trees being replaced in Portcullis House last week, it was a pleasure to see the fluttering of 56 flags of the new Commonwealth. It is always a sign that spring is coming and a chance to reflect on our relationships around the world. Of course, the Commonwealth is not a new thing; it has evolved over time. The modern Commonwealth started in 1949, when its head was the King, although the role is not hereditary; it does not move from monarch to monarch. It moved to Her late Majesty the Queen and then to the current King when he was Prince of Wales. He took up the mantle having visited 45 of the 56 Commonwealth countries, and Her Majesty visited 54. I am lagging behind enormously but hope to visit Togo in the next 24 months, having visited Gabon only a few weeks ago with my hon. Friend the Member for South West Hertfordshire (Mr Mohindra)—despite not having my glasses, I think I recognise him sitting at the Parliamentary Private Secretary desk. It was an excellent visit in which we welcomed Gabon’s application. In all candour, we were a little uncertain as to whether it would be successful that time around, but we were pleasantly surprised that both it and Tonga were successful. The meeting was interesting.

Reflecting again on what Members of Parliament do when they go out to countries, I can say that this was a particularly good visit, because we and other parliamentarians went out into the forest, where there is a big issue of carbon sinks, and saw the detail of how illegal and legal logging was being monitored. In fact, we got into canoes in Gabon. That was perhaps one of my parliamentary low points: I was almost eaten by an hippopotamus. However, the hippopotamus’s loss is Parliament’s gain, as I am still here, Mr Gray.

The Commonwealth accounts for a third of the global population—around 2.5 billion—60% of whom are under the age of 30, which is a particular issue for the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth works across human rights issues. There is also the sports of the Commonwealth. Sadly, in some countries, the Commonwealth is more related to sports than to the broader Commonwealth relationship, thus demonstrating that we have still more work to do.

LGBT issues are always quite prominent in any discussion, as are freedom of expression and the promotion of democracy more generally. However, having elections alone is not enough to provide democracy; it goes much deeper than that. Trade is an increasing issue: 9% of UK trade is with the Commonwealth, but for some Commonwealth members the trade with other Commonwealth countries is even more important. It is very tricky to do a trade deal with Eswatini, where I was a banker, and do that same trade deal with India, which a massive percentage have said to block.

It is great to have welcomed the Francophonie. In fact, Rwanda has headed up both the Francophonie seat and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting within the past 12 months, which shows that we can work through French groupings and English-speaking groupings. Indeed, as well as Rwanda, Togo and Gabon, there is the Lusophone country of Mozambique within the Commonwealth, thus demonstrating that the Commonwealth is growing. There were originally eight members in 1949. By the 1970s, that number had risen to 31, and by 1990, it was 50. I predict that, in another five years, the number will not be 56, but nearer 60, as people want to come together in different ways to work.

We also see the Commonwealth in the City of London. The City of London Corporation is very active through the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. I praise its work in investment and also in its facilitation of work with the Commonwealth parliamentarians both here in this Parliament and when we have incoming delegations.

As hon. Members know, the CPA UK branch is very active. There have been some excellent chairs, including my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke, my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset, and Lord Haselhurst, who also went on to serve internationally. Recently, it held the 71st seminar here in the UK. It has done post-election work in Grenada. Next week, we are sending a delegation to South Africa. Colleagues are going to visit our partners in Canada. There has been work on violence against women and girls, an awful lot of work on modern slavery, working with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and also work on the issues around overseas territories, which is a particular passion of mine. There have been election-observing missions in places such as the British Virgin Islands—good work if you can get it, Mr Gray. There is quite a lot of detailed work, particularly on public accounts committees, which are new forms of committees and new ways of working. More recently, I have been involved in trade and scrutiny work.

I said that I wanted to turn to the CPA’s international branch, which forms the core of my asks for the Minister today. I spoke this morning to Stephen Twigg, late of this parish, who, I think, was just on the way to bed. He is in Tonga at the moment doing a post-election seminar. He wanted me to thank the Department for its work on the issues of CPA status. The CPA international branch is currently based in the UK, but it has charitable status. That charitable status causes some countries around the world a problem because to a poor, small-island state or a state that is receiving money, giving moneys to a UK charity seems somewhat incongruous. However, there is a massive benefit in the CPA being located here under some such auspice, and it is good that we are working closely with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office around those issues.

I was pleased to see the Bill introduced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke being debated on Second Reading. Sadly, it did not go through, but it did provide a place setter. I praise Lord Goldsmith for his engagement on the issue, alongside the Minister. Having been involved in these issues over a number of years—I hate to think how many—let me say that it is quite exceptional for any Foreign Secretary to engage in such detail. Therefore, it was pleasing to see the recent letter from the Foreign Secretary saying that he wanted to help and to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of both CPA international and the FCDO, and it was amazing to read that he had secured Government time for that. I would appreciate the Minister confirming that that is not just a promise from the Foreign Secretary, but something that is being worked through via the normal channels, so that if we need legislation, the time for it is there.

Time is indeed pressing because the issue is outstanding and because it has caused friction in some countries. A number of countries are looking at the 17 April meeting in Gibraltar of the CPA international executive as a pinch point for a decision. The Foreign Secretary’s letter mentions an officials’ meeting. May I ask the Minister to commit herself to holding those meetings of officials as soon as she can so we can get the best possible product on 17 April and ensure that CPA international stays in the UK? That presence is of great benefit to the CPA and to UK plc more generally.

I think we have the right people in place. I was pleased to see Jo Lomas of the Foreign Office, whom I worked with a number of times years back. I picked up the phone to her and received in response an international warble. I decided that I had probably phoned her old Burundi or Rwanda mobile and hung up immediately, not wanting to speak to the new Minister, only to find it might have been her current mobile, as she is in Fiji. I am sure that, on her return, this issue will be high up in her in-tray and the in-trays of a number of others. I am sure the work of Jon Davies—again, formerly of the FCDO—will be called upon. No doubt he will be reading Hansard closely following the debate. Jon is an excellent individual who has served CPA UK very well, and who is well disposed to help Stephen Twigg and the international branch.

As punishment—in the unlikely event of my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke and my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater and West Somerset not being available, although I can promise anything on their behalf, including their dropping everything and cancelling their holidays to attend whatever meeting is needed—I stand ready to serve.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Anne-Marie Trevelyan)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Sir James Duddridge) for leading the debate, and for his dedication to the Commonwealth, including as a Minister and former chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. I also thank colleagues for their contributions. Where there are questions that are not within the FCDO purview and for which I am unable to provide a response—some of which you highlighted, Mr Gray—I will ensure that the correct Minister does so in a timely manner.

The Commonwealth is a vibrant and diverse family of nations. It makes up a third of the world’s population and around 30% of the votes on the UN, and has a collective GDP of over $14 trillion. It plays an important role in supporting an open and resilient international order, bringing together states with an interest in promoting democracy, sustaining individual freedoms, driving sustainable development and enabling cross-border trade. In an increasingly turbulent world, where autocracy is on the rise, the Foreign Secretary has renewed the UK’s commitment to what he calls “this extraordinary organisation”.

This is an important year for the Commonwealth. On Commonwealth Day, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Commonwealth charter, which enshrines our shared values of freedom, peace and democracy. We will also celebrate the coronation of His Majesty the King, the new Head of the Commonwealth, on 6 May. Last week, His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen Consort joined Commonwealth representatives at Westminster Abbey for a service that paid tribute to Her late Majesty the Queen for her tireless dedication to the Commonwealth. I think the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill) speaks for all of us in highlighting how sad we were to lose her last year. However, I think the Queen would have been so pleased that 2023 is also the Commonwealth Year of Youth. Over 60% of the Commonwealth’s population is under 30. As the previous Commonwealth chair-in-office, we championed the voice of young people, who will drive future prosperity across some of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The UK’s commitment to the Commonwealth is unwavering. We provide significant bilateral aid to Commonwealth countries, totalling over £1 billion in 2021, and we fund and support a wide range of Commonwealth initiatives and programmes. As we look towards the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa next year, the UK will work with partner nations to deliver tangible benefits in our three priority areas: trade, climate and values.

First, we need to boost trade and investment between Commonwealth countries. Encompassing over 2.5 billion consumers, the Commonwealth makes an important contribution to the global market network. Our shared language and shared institutions create what we refer to as the Commonwealth advantage, reducing the average cost of trade between members by 21% compared with trade with the rest of the world.

Building on that advantage, the UK has secured trade agreements with 33 Commonwealth countries, including economic partnership agreements covering 27 Commonwealth African, Caribbean and Pacific nations. However, we need to go further to make sure that all members feel the full benefits of Commonwealth membership, so the UK is working with partners to reduce barriers to intra-Commonwealth trade and to help developing members to attract sustainable inward investment.

The hon. Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) raised an important point about flights between the UK and India. He is absolutely right to say that they are a tool that could open up both family and trade opportunities. The UK’s airline network is privately owned; different countries run their airlines in different ways. However, I am happy to discuss this issue with him and with colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade, to see how we can encourage the opening of new routes. I have dealt with this issue in relation to other countries, and I am happy to take it up with colleagues.

Secondly, the Commonwealth can drive enhanced action on climate change and the environment, particularly to support its more vulnerable members, including 25 small island developing states. I have had the great privilege personally, both in former ministerial roles and currently as Minister with responsibility for the Indo-Pacific, to visit nearly two dozen of our Commonwealth family countries, and in every one the challenge of climate change—the impact of more extensive and extreme weather events—is a real and present danger to the lives and livelihoods of so many people, their families and their businesses, and to the healthcare and education needs of women and young people most especially.

The UK has committed £11.6 billion to international climate finance, of which £3 billion is being invested in climate change solutions that protect and restore, and provide sustainable solutions to manage nature. The UK will continue to lead globally on this matter, harnessing all our talents, including—as the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston highlighted—the ACU, in order to help to find long-term solutions. The UK is also committed to supporting Commonwealth members to access climate finance through our funding of the Commonwealth climate finance access hub. Our investment of around £500,000 in the hub has already helped to mobilise $38 million of climate finance in three Caribbean states. At the last Heads of Government meeting in 2022, the Prime Minister announced further funding, through the new £36 million sustainable blue economies programme, to support small island states to develop sustainable ocean economies.

As Members have noted, the continued commitment by Lord Goldsmith, my FCDO ministerial colleague, has helped to deliver the 30by30 oceans commitment that was announced just a couple of weeks ago, which will afford opportunities to many of our most climate-vulnerable Commonwealth countries and others to support and sustain their ocean economies and protect their livelihoods. These are really important areas of development.

Thirdly, the Commonwealth has the potential to deliver much more on democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law. All Commonwealth member states have committed to upholding those shared values enshrined in the Commonwealth charter. The UK has worked with national human rights institutions across the Commonwealth to strengthen human rights and has supported human rights advisers to help small states engage with the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

We are ensuring that more girls are in school, pledging £217 million to support girls’ education across the Commonwealth at CHOGM 2022. The funding supports global education data gathering, teacher training in Rwanda and programmes to get girls and vulnerable children into school in Pakistan.

We have also delivered programmes for the promotion and protection of LGBT rights across the Commonwealth. Some £2.7 million of funding will continue to support grassroots organisations, such as the Commonwealth Equality Network, to defend human rights and equality for LGBT+ people. However, much more needs to be done, and we will encourage Commonwealth countries to go further to ensure the full and equal participation of all people in society.

The UK values the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to strengthen parliamentary oversight and accountability in the Commonwealth, and the FCDO looks forward to continuing to work closely with the association. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East and my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Dame Maria Miller) for their consistent and passionate voices on the legal status of the CPA. They will be pleased to know that the Foreign Secretary has tasked FCDO officials with working with the CPA secretariat to find an acceptable solution by legislative means if necessary.

[Sir James Duddridge]

Will the Minister confirm that, as well as the pledge from the Foreign Secretary, normal channels have agreed that time will be found, if needed, for legislation? Secondly, could those meetings with officials happen as soon as possible, so that there is something a little firmer to go back with to individuals at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association international executive committee meeting on 17 April in Gibraltar?

[Anne-Marie Trevelyan]

I absolutely note my hon. Friend’s comment on the need for timeliness in those discussions so that it becomes clear exactly what the right route will be. I will ensure that the Foreign Secretary and his team are fully cognisant of that time pressure so that, whatever the solution is, we can ensure that colleagues on the write-round are able to support it. The Foreign Secretary is clear in his commitment to move forward, but I note that the clock is ticking as regards that meeting.

To drive our three-pronged agenda of trade, climate and values, our mantra needs to be the continuous improvement of Commonwealth institutions, building on the reforms agreed by Heads of Government in Kigali. We will work with the Commonwealth secretariat and members to ensure quick progress ahead of CHOGM 24. In the words of His Majesty the King,

“Let ours be a Commonwealth that not only stands together, but strives together, in restless and practical pursuit of the global common good.”

We will do all we can to meet the challenge he has set us, to strengthen the Commonwealth and to ensure that it delivers clear purpose and value for all its members, whether large or small.

[Sir James Duddridge]

What a wonderful flourish to end on—I am only sorry that I have to spoil it with my final comments. It is great that the Minister quoted his Majesty who, as I mentioned, has visited 45 countries, which is a little better than the two dozen visited by the Minister—not that I have been wasting my time over the weekend, but it is 32 for me, if you are asking, Mr Gray.

However, it has been a great tour de force from the Minister, particularly on small island states, and that is much appreciated by all. I ask her to pass on our collective thanks to the Foreign Secretary, for what is being done and, more generally, for the work he and Lord Goldsmith are doing, which has been exceptional. Getting that commitment on parliamentary time if it is needed, and knowing that the whole Department—from the Foreign Secretary down to the people who do the real work—knows there is that 17 April deadline is absolutely superb. So I thank the Minister for that.

I thank the hon. Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) for his comments. I look forward to the Mumbai-Manchester route. I am happy to support that very visibly and vocally if he supports the Manchester-Southend route connecting up with it. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill) spoke about the impact on constituencies. The Commonwealth games are really passionate, and a lot of people, such as my constituents in Southend, held events involving, for example, children celebrating the Commonwealth. In Southend, the mayor, Kevin Robinson, took part in the celebrations. There is more we can do to celebrate in our constituencies.

The hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows) spoke passionately about pensions—perhaps stretching your patience with the detail, Mr Gray, although attention to detail is always admirable—and questions were raised about what type of heels I was wearing. I can reassure the House that I will be leaving my feet under the table so as not to embarrass anybody. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is always present for debates in this place, made an excellent contribution, particularly on the youth development index, and went through some of the nitty-gritty detail, which we sometimes brush over.

The hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock) touched on a few subjects on which I disagree with her, although we agree on others. I was present for a debate in the Chamber during which you, Mr Gray, disagreed with Members being allowed to use devices to look at Wikipedia. However, had I not spent a little time googling, I would not know that the hon. Lady is a product of the Commonwealth and of Australia. I suspect that, while I was at university, I watched her on “Home and Away”. The only characters I can remember are Charlene—for obvious reasons—from the garage, a dog called Bouncer and someone who went on to appear in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, whose name I cannot remember.

The hon. Lady urged me to talk about schools. We have done a lot of work on girls’ education through the Department—sorry, the Government have. I am mixing up my roles. She also mentioned COVAX, which was rather curious. She should look back on her comments, because I think she will find that it was my right hon. Friend the Minister who brought in a £420 million facility for covid, called COVAX, before the vaccine even came into place, so we had that funding ready to distribute when a vaccine came forward. At the time, I was a Minister, and I spent hours, which I cannot get back, in covid committees looking at operationalising the vaccine and getting it out to different countries, which was somewhat problematic in a number of cases.

The hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston made an excellent speech, drawing on her constituency experiences. I mused on whether there is a constituency out there containing representatives of all 56 Commonwealth countries, and Birmingham could probably muster those people. Perhaps we could all get together to celebrate the 56 nations. I fully support what was said about LGBT issues. We can both be embarrassed about how we have legislated across the Commonwealth against those communities, but we should also be proud of the progress that has been made, while acknowledging that further progress needs to be made.

There were calls for Zimbabwe to come back to the Commonwealth. Brilliant. Bring it on, Mnangagwa. We are ready for you. You just need to do the right thing. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston also discussed whether we make enough of the Commonwealth. We make a lot of it, but we certainly do not make enough of it. It is good to know that not only His Majesty’s Government, but His Majesty’s official Opposition, want to do more with this multilateral institution.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered Commonwealth Day.