Official Development Assistance and the British Council

Debate between Sarah Champion and Lee Rowley

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Lee Rowley (North East Derbyshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I pay particular tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) for the passion that he displayed in making his argument just now. I imagine that he will not be terribly happy with the comments I am about to make, but I have the greatest amount of respect for what he has just articulated. I also pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), who made a powerful speech earlier. He was the individual who got me to Africa in the first place. I remember us talking in 2008—he probably does not remember—when we were in the eastern province of Rwanda on Project Umubano. Although I am not particularly loud on this subject, it is of interest to me, and it has been so ever since he had the courtesy to take me there a number of years ago.

I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), one of my near neighbours. She speaks with such force on this, and I have such respect for the work that she is doing in her Select Committee—

[Sarah Champion]

But?

[Lee Rowley]

But. The hon. Lady anticipates me, but perhaps I can start with some shared principles.

I shall start my contribution today by reaffirming some of the things that have already been spoken about with some eloquence—namely, that support for those in need is part of what makes us human, that aid has the most enormous transformative power for those who are less fortunate than us, and that the UK has a proud history of offering other countries a hand up. I do not doubt the resolve of the many Members who have argued the case for higher aid spending with energy and clarity—and with repetitiveness, based on the last few weeks of discussions in this place. I also accept the challenge from some of them today that we do not always simply accept polls, we do not always accept what people tell us and we do not always work towards certain instincts that may be out there, but by the same token, we would be wise to heed them at certain points. The debate is, if I may say so, running the risk of projecting a uniform consensus that there is some kind of mandatory, almost quasi-religious, commitment to a single venerated number.

[Sarah Champion]

I want to make two points. The first is that we all have a manifesto pledge to 0.7%. The second is that the most recent polling shows that 53% of the population support our commitment to UK aid. That is the evidence.

[Lee Rowley]

On the hon. Lady’s second point, I hope she will accept that different polls are saying different things. I may just leave that one there. On her first point, I absolutely accept that I stood on a manifesto commitment. There is a broad philosophical discussion to be had with every Member of Parliament within and without this building about the manifestos that they stood on, some of which have been discarded more extensively by other Members on other Benches than the particular principle that we are talking about now, on a temporary basis. As politicians, we always seek to agree to the manifesto on which we have the greatest consensus and with which we have the greatest affinity, but that does not mean that we cannot accept challenges to it or that changes will not be appropriate or necessary in extraordinary circumstances.

My concern—I say this gently and with caution—is that this place is becoming fixated on a single number, and while the consensus may be in place here, I hope that even if people disagree with it they will accept that that is not the case outside these walls. It is the duty of any Government to make decisions on spending based not simply on the transient allure of consensus from this usually fractured body, but also with regard to the much less exuberant considerations of our national finances, or perhaps even to the views of those who put us in this place. That is before we even reference the millions of people who have never, ever been reconciled to a single arbitrary figure.