Official Development Assistance and the British Council

Lee Rowley Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Lee Rowley (North East Derbyshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) for the passion that he displayed in making his argument just now. I imagine that he will not be terribly happy with the comments I am about to make, but I have the greatest amount of respect for what he has just articulated. I also pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), who made a powerful speech earlier. He was the individual who got me to Africa in the first place. I remember us talking in 2008—he probably does not remember—when we were in the eastern province of Rwanda on Project Umubano. Although I am not particularly loud on this subject, it is of interest to me, and it has been so ever since he had the courtesy to take me there a number of years ago.

I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), one of my near neighbours. She speaks with such force on this, and I have such respect for the work that she is doing in her Select Committee—

[Sarah Champion]

But?

[Lee Rowley]

But. The hon. Lady anticipates me, but perhaps I can start with some shared principles.

I shall start my contribution today by reaffirming some of the things that have already been spoken about with some eloquence—namely, that support for those in need is part of what makes us human, that aid has the most enormous transformative power for those who are less fortunate than us, and that the UK has a proud history of offering other countries a hand up. I do not doubt the resolve of the many Members who have argued the case for higher aid spending with energy and clarity—and with repetitiveness, based on the last few weeks of discussions in this place. I also accept the challenge from some of them today that we do not always simply accept polls, we do not always accept what people tell us and we do not always work towards certain instincts that may be out there, but by the same token, we would be wise to heed them at certain points. The debate is, if I may say so, running the risk of projecting a uniform consensus that there is some kind of mandatory, almost quasi-religious, commitment to a single venerated number.

[Sarah Champion]

I want to make two points. The first is that we all have a manifesto pledge to 0.7%. The second is that the most recent polling shows that 53% of the population support our commitment to UK aid. That is the evidence.

[Lee Rowley]

On the hon. Lady’s second point, I hope she will accept that different polls are saying different things. I may just leave that one there. On her first point, I absolutely accept that I stood on a manifesto commitment. There is a broad philosophical discussion to be had with every Member of Parliament within and without this building about the manifestos that they stood on, some of which have been discarded more extensively by other Members on other Benches than the particular principle that we are talking about now, on a temporary basis. As politicians, we always seek to agree to the manifesto on which we have the greatest consensus and with which we have the greatest affinity, but that does not mean that we cannot accept challenges to it or that changes will not be appropriate or necessary in extraordinary circumstances.

My concern—I say this gently and with caution—is that this place is becoming fixated on a single number, and while the consensus may be in place here, I hope that even if people disagree with it they will accept that that is not the case outside these walls. It is the duty of any Government to make decisions on spending based not simply on the transient allure of consensus from this usually fractured body, but also with regard to the much less exuberant considerations of our national finances, or perhaps even to the views of those who put us in this place. That is before we even reference the millions of people who have never, ever been reconciled to a single arbitrary figure.

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is making an interesting speech. I am not absolutely certain that he absorbed all the lessons from our visit to Rwanda, on which I remember that he was a tremendous colleague to have along. We are not delegates here; we are representatives. Our constituents send us here on the fine Burkean principle of exercising our judgment. When my hon. Friend says that the whole House seems to agree on this point, he is right: very large numbers of people in the House agree about it and the Government would not win a vote, I assert. Will he join me, at the very least, in saying that the House should have an opportunity to vote on this important matter, on which he and I both stood in the general election?

[Lee Rowley]

My right hon. Friend raises an important point, which I know he has pursued relentlessly; I am sure that he will continue to do so beyond the confines of my very limited contribution to today’s debate. I am sure that he can take the point up with a representative of the Executive, and I hope that he is successful in his course.

[Mr William Wragg (Hazel Grove) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Lee Rowley]

If I may, I will make some progress, but I would be delighted to give way to my hon. Friend in a moment.

Probably what makes today’s debate so frustrating for people out there who may be watching and who do not share the consensus that is generally coming across is that in certain speeches—none of which was recent, I might add—it was as if we were arguing about whether to end aid in its entirety. Effectively, we are arguing today about whether we are going to spend an extraordinary amount of money on international aid or an incredible amount of money on international aid. We are allowing a debate to become skewed by a skirmish over an arbitrary percentage that was agreed back in the 1950s by the World Council of Churches on a basis of which I am still not 100% sure.

[Anthony Mangnall]

My hon. Friend is making a tremendous speech, although I happen to disagree with all of it. He is showing his true parliamentary skills, but the point is that we have arbitrary numbers all over the shop when it comes to politics, from the 2% in NATO to the 2.7% R&D commitment. It is a misnomer to suggest that we have them only in foreign aid. They are therefore not something that we should shy from introducing.

[Lee Rowley]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we have arbitrary targets everywhere; I do not doubt that. One reason that I sought election to this place was to try to get under the skin of those arbitrary targets. Some of the shibboleths that have not been challenged for a number of years have aspects that we should perhaps look at. We might wish to retain them, but we should never be shy of reviewing them again.

I am not saying this to be sharp with hon. Members, but it cannot be that the only approved manifestation of compassion is via a single monetary figure, free from the realities of any vague financial responsibility or even a semblance of fiscal rectitude. That is before we even get into the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes quite rightly brought up about value for money. I sat on the Public Accounts Committee a couple of years ago and some very interesting reports came through on value for money in this area. I accept that it is a very difficult issue to judge, but we may wish to turn to it with as much frequency and as much depth as we talk about this single percentage.

[Anthony Mangnall]

Will my hon. Friend give way on that point?

[Lee Rowley]

If my hon. Friend does not mind, I will try to make a little more progress.

I do not think that righteousness should be outsourced to an international sector that I have been really disappointed in in recent weeks as regards this debate. All the emails coming into my inbox, far from acknowledging the UK’s continuing commitment to those in need across the world, seem to be trying to create a frame that turns the UK’s huge generosity against itself and seeks almost to sting us into immotive or silent acquiescence.

It really must not be that virtue can be found only in criticism of one number owned by one country, when that country will still spend proportionately more this year than Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Iceland, Hungary, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Greece, Australia or the United States did in the previous year. I say that not just to make a rhetorical point, but because it is important that we understand the context within which we are debating this important point.

I absolutely acknowledge the strength of feeling in today’s debate from those who take a different view from mine. I hope and am sure that hon. Members who do not take my view will acknowledge that people who, like me, do not necessarily speak as loudly or as frequently on the subject, but who also feel strongly about it, also look to such signals as what people think around the country. I am afraid that in my view this debate is moving a little away from the people who placed us here. It is our job, or the job of some of us, to bring it back into balance. We all want to help lift up our fellow man, and it is not disproportionate that some of us want to do that in a way that increases the likelihood of our being able to continue to do so in the future.