Budget Resolutions

James Gray Excerpts

Monday 27th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Boris Johnson]

I will, if I may, complete my point about the penguins. The penguins have their British status by virtue of their residence in the British Antarctic Territory. We have the fifth biggest maritime estate in the world, giving us a special role in conserving the biodiversity of our seas.

[James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)]

Will the Foreign Secretary give way?

[Boris Johnson]

I think I know what my hon. Friend is going to say, and I will happily give way to him on this point.

[James Gray]

My right hon. Friend is making some extremely important points, particularly about the Antarctic and the Southern ocean. Will he commit the Government to paying particular attention to marine protected areas around the Antarctic coast, which I think he strongly espouses, as do close relations of his?

[Boris Johnson]

My hon. Friend brilliantly anticipates the point I was going to make. As he rightly guesses, the Government’s policy is to encircle or, I should say, to engirdle the planet with a blue belt of marine protected areas embracing 1.5 million square miles of ocean by 2020.

[James Gray]

Brilliant.

[Boris Johnson]

Thank you.

The House will know that the careless disposal of plastic waste poses one of the gravest threats to marine life. That potentially lethal material, which is carried by the currents, is choking seabirds and imperilling whales. In 2015, the Government introduced a charge on plastic carrier bags, cutting their use in the UK by 80%, and avoiding the disposal of 9 billion carrier bags, many of which might otherwise have ended up in the oceans. From 1 January, we will ban the production of plastic microbeads, the strongest legal measure of its kind anywhere in the world. This Budget goes further by asking for evidence on how the Government could take more such steps, through new taxes and charges, to combat the menace of marine plastic pollution. That is because Britain’s ambitions must be global, as befits our responsibilities, history and tradition.

A global Britain is a safer Britain and a more prosperous Britain. It is profoundly in our interests that we should play the role of helping to guarantee the safety of countries far from our shores—