Russia: UK Companies

Lord Fox Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury (Baroness Penn) (Con)]

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister, when Chancellor, called on and welcomed UK firms who had taken the decision to divest from Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine and said that we would welcome further such decisions from those companies. In terms of the Government’s actions, we have imposed the widest set of sanctions in our history against Russia, which limits the space for companies to operate in Russia, targeted at degrading the Russian war machine and also more broadly degrading its economic ability to continue this war. The noble Lord mentioned the condition of Ukraine’s infrastructure and the attacks on it by Russia in recent weeks. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary announced that we are looking to support energy generation in Ukraine in response to those attacks.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

It is good to hear the Minister talk about strong sanctions. I ask her to direct her department to look at the relationship between OneWeb and Eutelsat. OneWeb was absorbed into Eutelsat in an all-share deal, except for one share, the special share that the Government retain. Eutelsat continues to broadcast Russian channels, including two of the largest Russian pay-for television channels. Is it appropriate, given the Government’s special shareholding in OneWeb, which is a part of Eutelsat, for this relationship to continue?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I hope the noble Lord will understand if I do not comment on the specific case in the Chamber, but if he writes to me, I will look at Hansard and get back to him in writing on that point.