Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Gapes Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Hon. Members]

Hear, hear.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

Wait till you hear what I have got to say!

There will be no Brexit dividend. The question is how we will be able to find the resources for these posts around the world, where we will have to do more bilateral work, rather than less. Is that not the reality? Is it not a fact that the Foreign Affairs Committee’s recent report pointed out that half the 50 so-called improved posts were actually smoke and mirrors?

[Boris Johnson]

I am afraid the hon. Gentleman is talking complete nonsense. There are 50 new posts in the European network and, in case he missed my earlier answer, 250 more globally. That allows us to have 10 whole new postings—legations, missions, embassies—around the world and will take the representation of this country to the biggest of any European power. That is a fact of which the House should be proud.