Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords]

Mark Francois Excerpts

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 1st May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Duncan]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that serious underlying benefit of the Bill.

At the moment, we implement various sanctions. Some we implement because, as members of the United Nations, we have to do so, and others we implement because, as members of the European Union, we do so collectively with the other 27 members. The power that currently allows us to implement sanctions derives from our membership of the European Union; it is not an autonomous legal power that we have sovereign to ourselves. This Bill is therefore needed to give to us, when we leave the European Union, the autonomous powers to have a proper, effective sanctions regime.

[Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) (Con)]

This will allow us to work on sanctions, in accordance with our allies and with the wishes of the United Nations. The Minister will recall that one argument put in the debate on the referendum was that if we left the European Union, we would be without allies, friends and influence. Does the response to the appalling crime that took place in Salisbury, when 26 countries expelled more than 130 Russian diplomats between them, not show that when it came to it, Britain had friends, allies and influence, and that those allies stood with us when it really mattered?

[Sir Alan Duncan]

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend because he is absolutely right to say that in this dangerous and unstable world it is very important that there are moments when we act collectively. We do so through many forums: we are a member of the P5—a permanent member of the UN Security Council; we are a member of the G7, G20 and NATO; and, crucially, we are the only major western power to spend 0.7% of our national income on international development. We are therefore in a good position to retain our influence in the world, and we will do so partly by the powers we are taking under this Bill. It will allow us to continue to implement UN sanctions and to implement our own sanctions, no doubt often in concert with the remaining 27 members of the EU.