Commonwealth Day

Debate between Rehman Chishti and Andrew Rosindell

Thursday 13th March 2014 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Rosindell]

I would not have expected my hon. Friend to have been anywhere else, because he is such a committed supporter of the Commonwealth. The tradition that we have established this week in our country—that the flag of the Commonwealth should be flown at civic offices, town halls and, I hope, schools—will continue. I am proud to say that the flag of the Commonwealth was raised on the flagpole outside the Romford Conservative association’s Margaret Thatcher house in my constituency.

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden (Sir Alan Haselhurst) for his magnificent work as international chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and of its UK branch in Westminster. I know that you, Mr Bayley, also play a significant role in the work of the CPA. When I was elected to Parliament in 2001, one of the first things I did was to join the CPA. I commend it on its magnificent work and the way in which it has evolved over my 13 years as a Member.

On my first CPA visit in 2002, I accompanied my right hon. and noble Friend the then Member for Folkestone and Hythe—now Lord Howard—to Mauritius. Since then, I have participated in many CPA activities. I am delighted that the CPA is no longer simply about parliamentary friendship—although that is important—but about helping others to develop important things such as credentials and good governance. The CPA does magnificent work in those areas.

I put on the record my thanks to my right hon. Friend the Member for Saffron Walden and his team for all the work that they do to promote the CPA. There are issues about CPA internationally, and I hope that all nations in the Commonwealth understand and appreciate that we must work together because we have important common goals, values and objectives, which we must cherish.

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly), who has made powerful remarks today about his visit to Sri Lanka and the deep importance of the Commonwealth. Not enough people understand that. I am glad that he is part of the CPA and that he has been to Sri Lanka and seen what is going on. I was pleased to have the opportunity to visit Sri Lanka myself three years ago, where I saw the terrible things that have gone on in that country and the awful divisions that have occurred. Sadly, many of those divisions have been made far worse by the Sri Lankan Government’s decision many years ago that English would no longer be the country’s common language. Surely, one of the most powerful aspects of the Commonwealth is the fact that all its members are bound together by the common language of English. Ending the use of English as a common language for all peoples of the Commonwealth will create divisions as one regional language takes precedence over another. The common English language does more than anything else to bind us together.

The other thing that Sri Lanka did was to become a republic, taking away a Head of State who was neutral and above politics. Countries that have gone down the republic road have not necessarily had the great success for which they had hoped. Those that have kept Her Majesty the Queen as their head of state—Australia, New Zealand, Canada, most of the Caribbean countries and many others—have not suffered from the internal divisions that countries such as Sri Lanka have, sadly, experienced. That is a great lesson for countries thinking about going down that route. The monarchy is a glue that binds together people of all political backgrounds and all ethnic origins despite divisions within countries.

I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Pamela Nash) for her powerful speech about human rights in many Commonwealth countries. I agree entirely with her. We are not doing enough to deal with the atrocious things going on today in some Commonwealth countries—she mentioned Uganda, and there are many others—where the standards and values of the Commonwealth should be enshrined. Those countries must understand that being part of the Commonwealth means that certain values, including, crucially, human rights, must be upheld. I commend her for speaking so strongly about that. It is a message that we must spread.

[Rehman Chishti]

On that point about human rights around the Commonwealth, two weeks ago students from Indian-administered Kashmir were charged with sedition and expelled from university for supporting Pakistan in a cricket match. That runs completely contrary to people’s basic human right to support whomever they like, however, wherever and whenever they like. Does my hon. Friend agree that those basic rights must be respected around the world, and that where they are flouted, we, as members of the Commonwealth, should say that that is totally unacceptable?

[Andrew Rosindell]

Of course, I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. The fact of the matter is that the Commonwealth is a Commonwealth of nations, and we are all proud of our national heritage. We are proud of being British, and people of Pakistani origin are proud of their origins, as are people from New Zealand or any other country. Tolerance, understanding, kindness and friendship are values that should bind us together, and intolerance against people for whatever reason is wrong. I am sure we all agree that the Commonwealth must uphold that principle.

My hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) gave a moving, powerful and thought-provoking speech about the huge sacrifice made by the people of New Zealand, Australia and other Commonwealth countries in the service of King or Queen and country over so long. That is particularly true of New Zealand, which has done more than probably any other country when it comes to sacrificing its own people in the service of freedom, the defence of the Crown and all the values that we hold dear.

I have been to New Zealand five times and I chair the all-party parliamentary group on Australia and New Zealand, having been an officer of that group during my 13 years in the House. I believe that there is no country in the world with which we have more in common than New Zealand, although perhaps I might include Australia and Canada in that. We are cousins. We are kith and kin, as my hon. Friend rightly said, and I find it utterly shameful that a New Zealander arriving at Heathrow is treated as an alien. I have raised the matter repeatedly with this Government and the previous one. Two years ago, I put forward a ten-minute rule Bill, the United Kingdom Borders Bill, on that subject. In the final year before the general election, I hope that the Minister will take back to the Government the message that it is time we did something to address that.

It is completely wrong that someone from New Zealand, Australia or Canada is treated as an alien when they arrive at Heathrow, but someone from a country that happens to have joined the European Union, for better or for worse, is treated as though they are British and comes through the same channel as we do. How can that be right? How did we get into a situation where we treat countries with which we have most in common—countries with which we share a Head of State, a language and a style of parliamentary and legal system—as alien, while we give preferential treatment to countries that happen to have signed up to the European Union?

I urge the Minister to speak to the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister and do something about the situation. If we want to value the Commonwealth, and particularly the realms, which remain under the Crown—if we want to cement them as part of the great Commonwealth family—let us try to affect that issue. Nothing offends New Zealanders, Australians and Canadians more than being treated in that way when they arrive at Heathrow airport.