Covid-19

Tom Tugendhat Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I particularly welcome the bipartisan tone that the hon. Gentleman has taken. I thank him for welcoming the statement and particularly for recognising and paying tribute to the consular staff and wider FCO teams who, in very difficult circumstances—not least given the advice that we in Government have given—are doing a tremendous job.

The hon. Gentleman asked about insurance companies. Obviously, they take their lead, at least to some degree, from the travel advice changes. One of the important things for the FCO to do is to give clear and decisive travel advice. That is one of the benefits of the statement that we have made today.

I certainly take on board the hon. Gentleman’s comments about working with the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chancellor to make sure that we provide support to the airline sector, which is not only important for jobs—we also need it to help get UK nationals home. For the reasons I gave in my statement, we want to allow them to do that through normal commercial means.

[Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con)]

This crisis is causing us to tear apart many aspects of the global system that we have grown used to in the past 20 or 30 years. The threat that it could pose to future scientific co-operation and future defence against not only pandemics such as this, but the poverty that has blighted so much of the world over recent generations, is enormous.

Will the Foreign Secretary assure me that, as he is planning with his Foreign Office partners and staff to rescue and save so many people around the world, he is also looking to co-operate with others to make sure that the international community works together to build a proper future, based on a shared and prosperous globe?

[Dominic Raab]

I thank my hon. Friend the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He is absolutely right about the consular measures that we are taking to support UK nationals who feel vulnerable or stranded overseas. I also agree with him about the need for an international approach to pandemics such as this; we have not seen anything like this before. That is why we are providing support to build up the capacity in some of the most vulnerable countries. We are doing that with a total envelope of up to £241 million of aid funding and we are working through the World Health Organisation, the Red Cross, UNICEF and other organisations.

More generally, the Prime Minister spoke to his counterparts in the G7 yesterday. They agreed on the importance of a stronger co-ordinated international approach, and that will include everything from economic measures to research and development to make sure that there is the collaboration that will prevent further pandemics from happening.