Spending Review 2020

Viscount Trenchard Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Grand Committee

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for introducing this debate today, but I do think the two-minute speaking time limit is absurd. I do not understand why five hours, rather than three, could not have been set aside for this important debate. If there really are good reasons why our time today is so limited, it would have been better to reduce the number of speakers by ballot.

I will therefore concentrate on just one area: the UK’s role on the world stage. Having lived and worked abroad for many years, mostly in Japan, I have never doubted that the UK possesses enormous global reach and has perhaps underestimated the extent of its own soft power. I particularly welcome the Government’s commitment in the spending review to strengthening Britain’s place in the world, and I welcome our commitment to remaining one of the largest spenders of official development assistance, committing £10 billion in 2020-21. The Government’s commitment to spending an additional £24 billion on defence will assist greatly in underpinning our influence on the world stage as a force for rules-based trade and enhanced global security.

The UK is the second-largest winner of Nobel prizes, and the decision to establish a new UK infrastructure bank to replace our reliance on the EIB, together with a commitment to providing investment of £14.6 billion in research and development, are both important to our future as a leader in scientific innovation. Does the Minister not agree that the unattractive terms of third-country participation in the Horizon Europe programme suggest that the UK would do better not to seek association but to direct available funding to wider forms of international collaboration?