Oral Answers to Questions

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

I have been having regular conversations, as have the Foreign Secretary and colleagues across the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office. I was in Poland just last week discussing with our Polish allies our important collaboration. The week before that, I was in Rome with the Weimar+ group. These are all active and ongoing conversations and, as the hon. Member said, they are absolutely crucial at a time of such geopolitical uncertainty.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

3. How much funding his Department plans to provide to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance for the 2026 to 2030 period.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Mr David Lammy)]

We are proud to be founding partners of Gavi. We have invested more than £5 billion since 2000 helping to immunise more than 1 billion children. Gavi has enjoyed good cross-party support in this House and I am looking forward to updating the House accordingly.

[Jim Shannon]

I welcome what the Foreign Secretary has said, and I warmly welcome the Prime Minister’s repeated assurances that vaccination remains an international development priority. Ahead of tomorrow’s high-level pledging summit, does the Foreign Secretary agree that the UK must continue to make a significant contribution to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to ensure that millions of children are protected from some of the world’s deadliest yet treatable diseases, such as malaria?

[Mr Lammy]

I am not going to anticipate the announcement that we may make tomorrow, but I am hugely grateful for the hon. Gentleman raising this issue. We are a proud founding member of the Global Fund and were very pleased to co-host its eighth replenishment alongside South Africa. I look forward to making an announcement very shortly.