Covid-19: International Response

Lord St John of Bletso Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord St John of Bletso (CB)]

My Lords, in my allotted two minutes I wish to make five points and pose two questions. Clearly this is a global disease that mutates at a staggering rate, so we cannot afford to leave any disease reservoirs untreated if we are to be successful.

Britain is leading the world in funding a vaccine and we should seek to lead in other medical solutions. We need new global leadership by the UK in the absence of China and America. This provides the United Kingdom with the opportunity to redefine our trading partners post Brexit.

A prolonged lockdown has dire economic consequences, with massive global unemployment, and it will take us until the end of 2021 to fully recover.

The pandemic has accelerated the rate of deglobalisation that started with the US-China trade wars. As several noble Lords have already mentioned, Africa is an obvious case in point that will require enormous support from the developed world in countering this pandemic. This offers the West the opportunity to displace Chinese influence on the continent.

Finally, we need to develop the capability to test and track for various strains in the pandemic. I recently had the antibody test and, to my surprise, found that I was IgG positive, meaning that I have had the virus but am fully recovered and no longer contagious. What is more, I had no idea that I had the virus. Obviously I am relieved that I now have the antibody.

I have two questions for the Minister. First, what are our Government doing to support international trade and the movement of capital and people, thereby promoting the United Kingdom as a bastion of fine free trade? Secondly, what efforts are being taken to promote a unified and international approach to tackling this pandemic?