Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Cunningham]

15. What provisions has the Chancellor made for universities in this country after 2020? Will he match pound for pound the lack of EU money?

[Mr Hammond]

What we have said is that where EU funding is awarded to projects involving universities, businesses, external research institutes and farmers between now and the point of our departure from the European Union, provided those awards meet our value-for-money criteria and have the support of the UK or devolved Administration Department responsible, the Treasury will underwrite those awards. We expect that in any settlement with the European Union, the Commission will go on paying those awards after we have left, but if it does not we will stand behind them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 12th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

3. Whether his Department plans to recruit more trade specialists as a result of the outcome of the EU referendum.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Philip Hammond)]

Let me begin by welcoming the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) to her new post, along with her compact team—a model, I hope, of improved productivity in the UK economy, although time will tell.

As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced last month, the Government are creating a new EU unit which will bring together the brightest and best from Whitehall and the private sector, including lawyers, financial experts and trade experts. The Government are actively seeking to recruit trade specialists, and that includes approaching former civil servants who have retired or moved to the private sector.

[Mr Cunningham]

I thank the Foreign Secretary for that answer, but can he tell the House how much this is going to cost?

[Mr Hammond]

No, not at this stage, but what I can tell the hon. Gentleman is that in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, facing the opportunities we now do, recruitment of trade specialists, whatever that costs us, is likely to be an investment very well worth making.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Jim Cunningham

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hammond]

Yes. Not only in the middle east but in all countries of origin, the long-term solution is to improve conditions and seek stability, security, good governance, the rule of law and economic growth.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

T4. When was the last time that the Foreign Secretary spoke to the Russians about the situation—particularly the military situation—in Syria?

[Mr Hammond]

I spoke informally to the Russian Foreign Minister when we were together in New York for the UN General Assembly at the end of last month. That was the last time that I discussed the situation with the Russians.

Britain in the World

Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Jim Cunningham

Monday 1st June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I want to build on the point that I have made to the hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes). In 2010 we inherited a hollowed-out system, with public finances that were on the brink of collapse after years of overspending and over-borrowing, and the largest peacetime deficit in this country’s history.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

rose—

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hammond]

It was one of the many things that were desperately lacking. I was a little surprised by the comments of the other Miliband—the former Foreign Secretary—last week, because they read like the comments of a man who has never been inside the Foreign Office and has no recollection of the damage that the previous Labour Government did to our foreign policy and its instruments.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hammond]

I want to make a little more progress and then I will give way.

In the face of continuous opposition from Labour, we chose to tackle Britain’s problems in 2010, not paper over them with more borrowed money. We chose growth over recession, jobs over welfare, strength over weakness, and influence over decline. We stuck to our pledge to meet the United Nations target for development aid and committed to ensuring it was used to complement our global objectives. We are rebuilding Britain’s economy to be among the most dynamic in the developed world, with the fastest rate of growth in the G7 last year and the fastest rate of job creation in the European Union, earning the respect that underpins our role as a player on the world stage.

Let us not forget, and let us not allow others to airbrush out, the situation we inherited and the tough decisions we had to take. Armed forces had been sent into battle in Afghanistan without the protective vehicles, body armour and helicopter lift they needed to keep them safe. Under Labour’s stewardship, the Foreign Office had shut down over 30 diplomatic missions, ignored trade and investment opportunities around the world, and neglected vital relationships, including those with some of our closest allies—a neglect exemplified by the fact that during the entirety of Labour’s 13 years in office no Labour Foreign Secretary set foot in Australia, one of our closest allies.

[Mr Jim Cunningham]

In the Foreign Secretary’s report on foreign policy worldwide, he failed to mention the situation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. How far down the road to progress have we got on that?

[Mr Hammond]

Not nearly far enough. The Israeli election process and the process of forming a Government—the initiative that had started last year—has stalled, and now there is a common consensus among those most concerned with this issue that we have to complete the sensitive Iran nuclear negotiations before trying to kick-start the middle east peace process again. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise this because it lies at the root of so many of the other challenges that we face in the region, and we absolutely have to return to it over the course of this summer.