Government Overseas Aid Commitment: Private Investment

Luciana Berger Excerpts

Tuesday 9th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

My right hon. Friend is right. We have the opportunity to look in future years at what we might do with the £1.5 billion that we channel into the EU. I have set out very clearly that we would like to continue to work with our European partners. If that is done through the EU, we would have to ensure that they do not discriminate against British non-governmental organisations, and I have outlined both before the Select Committee and in my speech today how we would protect British NGOs and their beneficiaries in such circumstances.

[Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does the Secretary of State stand by the unnamed briefing to newspapers done today on her behalf, which stated that

“when investors step in, the taxpayer can step back”?

Does she think there is any interpretation of such a statement other than that she intends to resile from this country’s honourable commitment to spend 0.7% on development?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I and my staff—both my political staff and my DFID staff—did not brief that. What I can say is that if we can lift people out of poverty, which we need the private sector to do, as they are the ones who can create jobs and close that enormous funding gap on the global goals, I hope that in future years we will be able to spend less money on these things, because there will not be the need. But that lies many years ahead. There will always be a need for humanitarian aid, but we have made huge progress over the past few decades in lifting people out of poverty, and I want us to finish the job in Africa.