Oral Answers to Questions

Marcus Fysh Excerpts

Tuesday 21st February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Duncan]

We have a very close association with the UN special representative, Mr Espen Eide. I am confident that he will have thought of this possible intrusion into the successful negotiations, and I hope that those safeguards are properly in place.

[Marcus Fysh (Yeovil) (Con)]

3. What steps his Department is taking to promote the Global Britain campaign.

[Mark Pawsey (Rugby) (Con)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to promote the Global Britain campaign.

[The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Boris Johnson)]

Global Britain is a programme to help to explain to the world, but also to the people of this country, what I think they do not often suspect, which is the full range of Britain’s military, cultural, commercial and diplomatic influence in the world. It is important to do that now, particularly as we make our Brexit—or Bre-entry into the world, as we should perhaps call it—to help people to understand that a more global Britain will be a more prosperous Britain.

[Marcus Fysh]

Will my right hon. Friend tell us how the various initiatives on building a global Britain as we leave the EU will help the people of the Yeovil constituency and the south-west of England?

[Boris Johnson]

I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that over the next 10 years we will, for instance, be spending £178 billion on defence—we are one of the few countries in NATO to contribute 2% of our GDP to defence. As a result, there will be more funds available, for instance, to support companies in Yeovil, such as the helicopter company Leonardo MW, which, as far as I know, builds Wildcat submarine-hunting helicopters, among other vital bits of kit.