The Modern Commonwealth: Opportunities and Challenges

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady). It is also a pleasure to speak for the Opposition in this important debate in this, the 70th year of the Commonwealth.

Many excellent speeches and points have been made about the opportunities and challenges that face the Commonwealth. The hon. Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) made the point about the important work of the CPA in ensuring our good relations with the Commonwealth.

My hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Dr Blackman-Woods) talked about the need to keep up the momentum following CHOGM 2018, and to harness that into a revitalised Commonwealth fit for the 21st century. She also talked about the involvement of women in Parliaments.

The right hon. Member for East Devon (Sir Hugo Swire) talked about the growth in the economies of Commonwealth countries and Rwanda’s particular commitment to gender equality, which is very appropriate in the light of the fact that it is International Women’s Day tomorrow. My right hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (David Hanson) raised issues relating to sustainability, climate change, poverty, cyber-security and modern slavery, to name just a few.

The right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel) talked about the changing face of the Commonwealth and the fast-growing economies of some of its countries, particularly India. My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) talked about the urgent need to tackle climate change and plastic pollution, and about the adoption of the Commonwealth blue charter.

The hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) gave us a tour of the different gifts given to this place by Commonwealth countries, thereby highlighting the special nature of our relationship. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) focused on the persecution of Christians in some Commonwealth countries and the need to concentrate on ensuring that rights to freedom of religion or belief are not further eroded but are addressed using our Commonwealth partnership and power.

The Commonwealth encompasses a diverse range of countries, and I wish to inject a cautionary note into the talk about increasing our trade with the Commonwealth. Let me use Australia as an example. Australia has become a much more multicultural nation, with 46% of the population either born overseas or having one parent who was born overseas. The Australian population looks at a post-Brexit world through the lens of an increasingly non-British-affiliated population. Many Australians see the future of their country as being focused on Asia rather than the UK, as evidenced by the recent free trade agreement with Indonesia. Although our cultural ties with Australia are still strong, Australia’s economic focus appears to be elsewhere.

Despite the CHOGM in London last year being the first to be held since the Brexit vote, there was no notable movement or declaration on the issue of trade between Commonwealth countries. Given that the Brexit campaign asserted that increased trade with the Commonwealth could help to alleviate the economic impact of leaving the EU, that seems to me to be a notable omission.

Despite the Prime Minister’s high-profile speech at the summit, in which she apologised for the colonial imposition of anti-LGBT laws that still persist in many Commonwealth countries, there was no follow-up agreement among attendees to do away with those laws or, indeed, to begin to address the discrimination faced by the LGBT community in many Commonwealth countries.

The Commonwealth’s annual theme for this year, 2019, is, “A connected Commonwealth”. That theme encourages collaboration among the people, the Governments and the institutions of the Commonwealth to protect natural resources and promote inclusive economic empowerment so that all people—particularly women, young people and marginalised communities—can benefit equally. That builds on the goals agreed at CHOGM 2018, most notably adopting the Commonwealth blue charter on sustainable development and protection of the world’s oceans; committing to ratify and implement the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women; and the adoption of the Commonwealth cyber declaration, with a common commitment to an open, democratic, peaceful and secure internet, respecting human rights and freedom of expression.

The Commonwealth faces many challenges: job creation, trade, ending absolute poverty, tackling climate change and making progress on achieving the sustainable development goals by the target year of 2030. Across the Commonwealth, we have ongoing human rights or instability issues in countries such as Bangladesh, Cameroon and Pakistan. We have had the recent clashes in Kashmir between Commonwealth partners India and Pakistan, and the recent violence and instability in Zimbabwe, which expressed the wish to be readmitted to the Commonwealth following the fall of Mugabe.

There are many challenges. Let us not forget the opportunities, but given that the size of our exports to all 52 Commonwealth countries in 2016 was similar to the size of our exports to one EU country—Germany— we have a long way to go before our trade with the Commonwealth even begins to compensate for the loss of our customs union with the EU.