Afghanistan

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Wednesday 18th August 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

My Lords, Afghanistan has historically long been the graveyard of imperial pretensions on the part of global superpowers, and the references that have been made in our debate today to the first Afghan war testify to that. One hundred and eighty years on, we are still wringing our hands. However, the difference today, and the tragedy of recent events, is that those events have dealt a mortal blow to the democratic hopes and aspirations of a substantial proportion of Afghanistan’s very own people. They are the ones who stand to lose most from what has happened in recent days and weeks. Surely it is our duty to them and to our own dead and injured, who we rightly honour today in this place, not to betray the values that we have espoused as universal as we depart that country and deal with the fallout from that departure.

We have suffered a profound political, military and diplomatic setback. There is no use pretending otherwise. No doubt there will be a time to look into the reasons for that, and it is important that we do so. However, we should all be able to unite now around our values and our belief in universal human rights and the innate dignity of each and every one of us regardless of race, creed or gender.

The central question for me is whether we will do all we can to mount an effective humanitarian relief programme for those who are left behind and extend a genuine welcome to those who are fleeing that country now, even as we speak. Will the Government reverse the cuts in overseas development assistance to NGOs and multilateral organisations delivering that humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan? The figure of 10% is simply not enough. We need full restoration and a real increase of resources to address this humanitarian catastrophe. Will the Government step back from what has on occasion seemed to be, and actually has been, a mean-minded policy towards refugees and think again about ensuring that we do nothing towards any group of refugees, not just Afghani refugees, that undermines the international rule of law in that respect, as they are undermined by the proposals that we are shortly to see enacted in this House in the Government’s new asylum policy? We need to be among the most, not the least, generous in that respect.

Specifically, will the Government undertake to halt all forced removals of existing asylum seekers to Afghanistan and abandon the pretence that was on the website only 48 hours ago that Afghanistan is now, or is likely to become in the foreseeable future, a safe country for that purpose? The reality is that we are not treating fairly Afghani refugee asylum seekers who are here in this country now. Will the Government undertake to do that and to restore their full rights to them in the knowledge that they cannot return to that country? Will they undertake that no Afghani asylum seeker will be housed in the appalling conditions that exist in the Napier barracks in Kent and that we will support the desire of local authorities up and down the country to provide decent accommodation for asylum seekers? They need resources to do that.

The reality is that we need a clear plan going forward. We need to ensure that as we depart Afghanistan we do not abandon those people and the values that we share with those who believed what we told them. We owe them that at least.

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Monday 12th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, our hearts go out to the Queen and to the whole Royal Family because theirs is the greatest loss. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was a man of great gifts, and he shared them not just with this nation but with the wider world. I want to say a few words about that. We know that those gifts came from him as a man of action but also as a deeply thoughtful man. He was an innovative thinker, a free thinker, and someone who thought forward about the challenges that the whole world would face. He saw that at the heart of those challenges and addressing the challenges of these times is the need to unlock the potential of the individual.

So many in this House have been beneficiaries of the Duke’s forethought, thinking and capacity to innovate. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme is one aspect of that; I currently chair its international council. Another is Book Aid International. That charity, of which the Duke was patron for over 50 years, right up until his death, helped me as a little boy growing up in the Gold Coast—Ghana. With his friend, the Countess Ranfurly, he supported Book Aid to enable the library I went to as a little boy to be stocked with books—which he knew would make a difference, and which did make a difference. He went on supporting the work of Book Aid throughout his life. Indeed, one of his last receptions, at St James’s—those of us who were there will never forget it—was to benefit Book Aid to enable us to work in refugee camps and conflict zones and to respond with books and support for libraries and librarians in places dealing with the aftermath of climate change, making a difference in the lives of ordinary people. We saw—and see—that at work in the work of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award internationally, in more than 140 countries where the award is making a difference. The messages that have flowed into us at Award House over the past 72 hours have demonstrated its reach and its impact.

I will share just one aspect of that contact between His Royal Highness and the wider world that dates back to a visit he made in South Africa with Nelson Mandela to Pollsmoor Prison. The award globally is making a difference in prisons, changing young lives. When he went to Pollsmoor with Nelson Mandela, the award was operating in South Africa for the first time because His Royal Highness would not allow it to work in apartheid South Africa, where young people, black and white, of different colours and creeds, were not able to do the award together. He said no to racism because his award was incompatible with racism. That was His Royal Highness for you: he would not allow it in racist South Africa but he supported and encouraged it in the new South Africa. The award was for everyone.

His attitude is summed up by his writing. We know he wrote 14 books, but one in particular, A Question of Balance, strikes me as being of particular significance. He wrote:

“For the first time people are beginning to be conscious of the whole world and its place in the solar and stellar system. Political consciousness has been going up the scale from ‘my family’, ‘my city’ ‘my country’, to ‘my world’ … If consciousness on this scale can be combined with love and concern then there is real hope.”


Love and concern—that summed up His Royal Highness’s life; love of Queen and duty, concern for a shared planet and a shared humanity.

In Africa, when someone such as His Royal Highness passes on, they say “A mighty tree has fallen.” So indeed it has. In South Africa they say, “Hamba kahle, mkhulu”, which means, “Go well, great one.” Go well.

Covid-19 Update

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Thursday 7th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

I can assure the noble and right reverend Lord that PHE will be employing existing surveillance systems and enhanced follow-up of cases to monitor how effective the vaccine is in protecting against a range of outcomes, including infections, symptomatic disease, hospitalisations, mortality and onward transmission. I can assure him that that work is in progress, but I cannot give him a timescale. He will understand that we will need time to gather sufficient data to get a clear picture, but he is right that it will be critical.

[Lord Boateng (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, the black and Asian community is particularly at risk from the virus. The vaccine is our best hope. Yet that community is targeted by anti-vaccine campaigners. Will the Government work with faith leaders and work with and support the voluntary community health sector within those communities to promote strong and culturally appropriate public health messages? Will they work too with social media platforms to counter this insidious and deadly anti-vaccine propaganda?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park (Con)]

Yes, I can give the noble Lord that assurance. Work is already ongoing, but he is absolutely right: it is critical.

Global Britain

Lord Boateng Excerpts

Thursday 18th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Boateng (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, disease and instability on a global scale are the greatest threat to our country’s security. Can the noble Baroness confirm that in this relocation of roles and responsibilities, as she put it, there will be no reduction in the overall headcount of development-related staff deployed overseas, or those in crucial functions in London and Scotland, who are focused on reducing poverty and global disease, and on promoting safety and security, rather than instability? That has been the focus of so much of DfID’s work. It is different and distinct from diplomacy. Will that distinction be maintained and respected, and will the headcount be kept up?

[Baroness Evans of Bowes Park]

I said in answer to the noble Baroness that there will be no compulsory redundancies, although some roles and responsibilities will change. There are certainly no plans to close the DfID office in Scotland, where staff play a vital role in ensuring that UK aid delivers results for the world’s poorest. The opportunity to work at Abercrombie House in East Kilbride will be open to staff from across the reconfigured department. We will be working closely with staff as the programme goes ahead and the two departments merge, to ensure that we get the best out of the fantastic people who work in both departments.

Extension of Franchise (House of Lords) Bill [HL]

Lord Boateng Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords & 2nd reading (Hansard)
Friday 7th February 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dubs]

Of course, nobody asked me about the right to vote in the Lords. There are no demonstrations in Parliament Square or people marching down Whitehall backing this Bill. They are not saying, “What do we Want? Votes for the Lords! When do we want them? Now!” Of course they are not, but quite a few issues are matters of principle. We do not have to stir up public demos; this just happens to be the right and proper thing to. I feel personally hurt when I tramp the streets trying to get other people to vote and then find myself denied that basic right. I find it personally painful every time there is an election. My own views do not matter much in the scheme of things, but that is how I feel. We pay our taxes. What we surely want to do by voting is to have some influence on who the Government will be. Once the Government are elected, we can influence legislation. I think we can do a better job, as my noble friend Lord Adonis suggested, but we can talk about that another day. It is just that I would like to have some influence on who the Government will be, not just on the legislation that follows, but I have no chance to do that at all. I can influence my local authority, and previously I could influence the European Parliament, but not the Government. Surely that is a basic and simple right, and it will happen sooner or later.

I actually feel sorry for Ministers who have to answer because, in my brief two or three years as a Minister, I found it difficult when my heart was not in the argument that I was putting forward.

[Lord Boateng (Lab)]

Surely not.

[Lord Dubs]

That does happen, as my noble friend will know. It is quite difficult. There must be boxes in government departments saying yes or no, but then there is a little box that says, “Too difficult for us to deal with; we can’t think of any arguments to resist this”. This issue is in that category. I say to the noble Earl who is going to answer for the Government that nearly always, his heart is in it and he talks with total sincerity, but I doubt whether he will do that on this occasion.