Commonwealth Summit: Freedom of Religion or Belief

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

We foster positive engagement with India, and it is right that we do so. Our diasporas here in the UK reflect the strength of our relationship with India. On the specific point about human rights, I assure the noble Lord that, while we prioritise, for example, 30 priority countries in the human rights report, that in no way reflects the fact that we raise these issues with other countries in the world. Whether with India or with other parts of the Commonwealth, we will continue to raise the issue of human rights.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests, and I congratulate the Minister on the role he played in the success of the Commonwealth summit last week. Would he accept that, in addition to a number of government initiatives that were announced in the communiqué, the real force and value of the Commonwealth network nowadays lies increasingly in civil society and the private sector, and the massive and growing data connectivity between the younger generation throughout the whole 53 members of the Commonwealth? The future value of the Commonwealth network lies in those areas and in the huge and new consumer markets of Asia and Africa.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I agree with my noble friend, and as I am sure everyone saw, we put the issue of young people at the heart of the Commonwealth summit last week, as well as the issue of civil society. We had record numbers of civil society organisations—representative of all aspects of civil society, whether on issues such as youth or LGBT issues or religious freedom—represented across the four fora. That underlines our commitment as a Government and as chair-in-office for two years, to take forward the very priorities my noble friend put forward.

Nigeria

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

As the noble Lord will be aware, because of the challenges within Nigeria, much of the support that DfID presents has been spent on important issues such as sanitation, food provision and providing safety and security to children going to school. The noble Lord mentioned Boko Haram putting down their arms. Let us be clear: the ideology that drives the likes of Boko Haram is a perverse ideology. It is not there to make peace but to break the peace. Indeed, the Islamic State of West Africa group, which has different tactics, is also inspired by the same ideology. The important thing is that we have seen the Nigerian Government take some punitive steps against them and, where they can, bring the criminals to justice.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, is it not the position that our fellow Commonwealth country, Nigeria, which is one of the world’s largest nations, is confronting enemies of pure, undiluted evil? Is it not possible to think beyond representations to ways in which, through training and technical assistance or direct military assistance either under the aegis of the Commonwealth or directly, we can begin to tackle what is really a very straightforward situation of undiluted evil that must be overcome and resisted?

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 22nd March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Royal Commonwealth Society and shall speak to the Motion in my name on the Order Paper. I thank the International Relations Committee and its clerks, advisers and support staff for their extremely helpful and constructive role in producing this short commentary and report. I also look forward very greatly to the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Geidt, who has played such a central part in this issue over the years. We all very much look forward to hearing what he has to say.

This is going to be a summit with a difference. As my noble friend the Minister has just indicated, this is much more than just a meeting of Governments, Heads of Government and diplomats across green baize tables. It is going to be an outreach to peoples, to civil society, to business, to a thousand and one interests outside, because of course the Commonwealth does spread and reach far beyond Governments and has a very different structure to some of the intergovernmental and multinational patterns of the 21st century. We are moving into a new era. I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on the role that he personally has played in getting this new pattern developed. I also congratulate Mr Tim Hitchens as head of the powerful Commonwealth summit unit in the Cabinet Office, reporting direct to the Prime Minister and indicating the enormous weight and attention which Her Majesty’s Government are rightly giving to our relations with the 52 other Commonwealth countries.

This short report from the committee has two messages. First, the Commonwealth is a huge network. It is not just a gathering of Heads of Government. It is mainly non-governmental, grassroots based and multi-linked, as the report says—in the sense that, although Britain is important and the Head of the Commonwealth is of course Her Majesty the Queen, it is no longer the Anglo-centric pattern of the former British Commonwealth. This is about a completely new pattern emerging in the 21st century, which I think a lot of people find difficult to appreciate or understand as something very different from what went on in the past. No one planned this. It was not a blueprint. It was an accidental evolution of the Commonwealth system of voluntary co-operation. Of course, it fits perfectly into the digital age of hyperconnectivity by which all nations are linked, and particularly nations with a common working language, legal system, standards, origins, history and connections through commercial activity of all kinds.

This is a pattern which does not emerge very clearly from public commentary. Unhappily, it is not even reflected in the Library brief which we have been supplied for this debate—that is a pity, because Library briefs are usually superb. The brief does not seem to understand that this is a whole, new pattern. Like an iceberg, it is mostly underwater and the vast amount of professional networks are something entirely new. We can see it in organisations like the Association of Commonwealth Universities, which is not mentioned in the briefing. Every day, this organisation directly and continuously connects 530 universities across the entire planet. Take the Commonwealth of Learning in Vancouver, supported by the British Government. It is the biggest distance learning system in the world. It contacts 30 to 40 million people every day. This is a new kind of connectivity which we have to appreciate as part of the modern world, and the Commonwealth is certainly part of the modern world.

The second message from our brief report is a more selfish one. That is that I think it is right to look on this conference, its outcomes and the specialist areas the Minister has described as a key part of the United Kingdom’s reorientation in the post-Brexit world. There is a lot of talk of becoming isolated—of the dangers of not maintaining a deep and special relationship with Europe, which I hope we do. The reality is that even without Brexit, and before Brexit, the entire world pattern of trade is changing. We have to reorient our trade and our investment patterns; we have to look again at our security patterns in relation to what is happening in Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, where the Indian Ocean is becoming as important in world geopolitical peace and security as the Atlantic Ocean. We have to look at the new links of cyberconnection which spread across the world. Again, it is with the Commonwealth countries, particularly with India, which is at the centre of all these developments, that we have to make new connections. This was coming anyway long before Brexit, but it is now more important than ever.

I am not saying for one moment that the Commonwealth is somehow an alternative to our close relations with our neighbours in Europe; they of course remain vital, but the EU of the 20th century and the Commonwealth of the 21st century are completely different structures and arrangements. What is happening now, which is why I welcome so much what HMG are doing, is that Britain is returning to the nations on which we turned our back in 1972. We thought then that they were not the world markets and that Europe was our destiny. Europe is still vital, but, frankly, the great new growth markets of the next 20 years will be Asia, Africa and Latin America. It will be the Commonwealth connection—it is one of many networks; it is not the only answer—that provides us with the entrée, the gateway, to those new markets where we have to succeed or we will be gravely disadvantaged. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Marland, who has to be at this moment attending the Commonwealth Games in Australia, on the work that he is doing on the business side. Of course, business is only a small part of it; trade comes from all sorts of non-trade sources, including trust, common understanding, common educational aims and so on.

Why are the Government now putting so much effort into this, which I applaud? There are three big answers. First, it is markets. The gigantic markets of the future are, as I just said, in Asia. Europe is important, but proportionally it is a shrinking part of the world market scene. Secondly, it gives us an opportunity to promote our values—I hope, in an exemplary rather than a lecturing way—throughout the 53-nation system of the Commonwealth, because values equal trust. People say, “Well, you can’t eat values on the breakfast table”, but values equal trust; trust equals investment; investment equals prosperity and entrepreneurship; and out of that come the growth and enrichment which produce societies more confident and able to move on from past arrangements. Thirdly, from Britain’s point of view, this is a fantastic opportunity to transmit our immense soft power influence, which we have underplayed and do not use as strongly as we should and which now through the Commonwealth network has a huge opportunity to be expanded and increased confidently.

Finally—this is more a psychological point—there is a lot of talk about Britain having to find a new role as we move into this transformed world which is emerging post Brexit, post Trump, post an aggressive Russia, post a rising Africa, post a rising Latin America and so on. This is where we can find a substantial part of our new role which gives the pride and purpose that we have lacked. In the words of Her Majesty the Queen, it is indeed the “face of the future”. Sixty per cent of the Commonwealth’s population of 2.4 billion is under 30—it is a gigantic organisation of youth; half are women—it is a gigantic organisation of women; it is the face of tomorrow. That is why we should applaud what the Government are doing. I am glad to be able to make these comments and commend my Motion on the Order Paper.

Commonwealth Summit: Human Rights

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 21st March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The noble Lord is of course quite right to remind me that he has raised this with me before. We have followed up on this, and I assure him that, although there is always more to do, we will continue to do so on LGBT rights, and more broadly across the human rights spectrum.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Berridge is quite right to focus on the promotion of human rights, as are the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, and the noble Lord, Lord Chidgey. But can we make sure that promotion is done more by example than by lecturing—let alone by hectoring—which does not achieve the results we want at all? My noble friend has played a leading part in this forthcoming summit, which is full of opportunities. Would he not agree that prosperity and security are the best gifts we can contribute to the gigantic Commonwealth system across the world? In return, they can contribute to our welfare and our finding a role in the world.

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The noble Lord speaks from vast experience in this respect, and I agree with him. I would add that we can learn from the valuable experience of all 53 nations. The approach of Her Majesty’s Government, and indeed mine as a Minister on human rights, has never been one of pointing fingers. It is about learning from experience. Our own journey on gender equality, LGBT rights and the broader spectrum of human rights has been one where we have learned from example and through sharing experiences, whether we do it with other countries or countries do it with us. That is the value of the Commonwealth network.

Commonwealth Summit

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Tuesday 20th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I totally agree with the noble Baroness and pay tribute to her work on the important issue of fighting and eradicating malaria—we had a very constructive and helpful meeting in that respect. Yes, we are working closely with the organisations Malaria No More and Global Citizen to ensure that eradicating malaria across the Commonwealth 53 and beyond is prioritised. There are 85 NGOs accredited by the Commonwealth, and we are working closely with them as well.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

I am sure my noble friend agrees that this will be a summit with a difference in that it will involve to an unprecedented degree not only businesses and universities but schools, cities and regions right across the United Kingdom. That is very welcome and the preparation has been very thorough and encouraging. Does he agree that the task now is to ensure strong outcomes and results, so that the benefits and opportunities of the modern Commonwealth network, which is quite different to anything in the past, can be spread to business and to the nation as a whole, and so that we support the Commonwealth more strongly than we may have in the recent past?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I totally agree with my noble friend. Of course we will ensure that all the opportunities are appropriately leveraged. He makes an important point on education. I was delighted to be with him only this weekend to celebrate the contribution of British Bangladeshi youth, among the other diasporas, to making our country what it is, also demonstrating the strength and benefits of the Commonwealth not just to the United Kingdom but across the world.

Brexit: Foreign Policy

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My Lords, as I have already said, the UK, after we leave the European Union, will remain committed to strengthening ties with the remaining members of the European Union. The noble Lord may well have seen the common foreign and security policy document that we published in September, which laid out some of the key areas of discussion. On his point about European partners, I am sure that he followed very closely the UK-French summit only last week. The issue of security on a bilateral basis, for example, among other areas, was discussed in a very deep way. That underlines the continuing sense of respect and importance that is given by European partners to the UK’s role after we leave the European Union.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, is not the implication of what my noble friend has said that, as we develop our deep and special relationship, we are going to need a great many more bilateral links with, obviously, the other 27 members of the European Union and the wider world? Does that not indicate that perhaps the time has come to put an end to trying to run large parts of our foreign policy on a shoestring?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My noble friend is right that it is important to look at this issue in broader terms. Of course, our European relationships are important, but I reiterate that we remain members of the Security Council, the G7, the G20 and, of course, NATO. My noble friend is right to raise the important point of resourcing. The Foreign Office budget—the core budget—will increase next year to £1.24 billion. My noble friend may also be pleased to hear that we are also looking to add support to the Foreign Office network within a European context.

United States: Foreign Policy

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Thursday 18th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, for promoting this Motion and debate. I do not disagree with some of his concerns; in fact, I agree with some but certainly not all of them. I disagree particularly with the weight that he places on 20th-century blocs and alliances in this completely different age. That is charmingly out of date and old-fashioned but I understand it.

Whenever we discuss the special relationship and relations with the United States, we tend to hear two mantras constantly repeated. The first is that America remains the superpower leader of the free world, and the second is that the US President, Donald Trump, is the most powerful man in the world. I question both those statements in modern conditions. I dispute the first proposition because, although America is a great nation, a good friend and ally and the world’s most powerful economy by far, it has painfully discovered that it can no longer get its way in the reordering of the world. Indeed, that is confirmed by the recent studies by the Pentagon authorities, who fully recognise that America’s role has changed and that it is in a new era of what the authors call America’s “post-primacy”. In a world of networks, the whole concept of a superpower dominating the world has to be radically revised. I doubt the second proposition about Donald Trump because, as we now clearly see, his powers are limited both by internal US constitutional restraints and by forces larger than the USA itself, or, indeed, any one country, and much more complex. America clearly no longer gets its way merely by virtue of its colossal defence spending, and in these conditions there is no decisive victory to be secured, no real army to be defeated—the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, is right about that—and no definite end to a conflict. The battle ceases to be primarily on the battlefield; it becomes a matter of narrative and persuasion, of winning the story as well as of outright military operations.

That raises two issues. First, technology has greatly empowered the Davids against the Goliaths. Lethal weaponry can now be procured with ease and at low cost, which can put power into the hands of the smallest and often most invisible group or operating military cell or tribe. American foreign policy experts have just not fully understood that size no longer wins in the network world. Secondly, it needs to be the right kind of defence spending that actually wins friends and defends, by securing peace and stability rather than just by making enemies. What the Army calls non-kinetic means of winning become the most vital aspects of national defences. The basic point is that sheer overwhelming force is no longer the decisive factor, as vividly demonstrated, as we all know, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and possibly over North Korea. America can no more “win” on its own, despite its colossal arsenal, than we can.

As for Donald Trump, while I make no excuses for his very uncouth undiplomatic language, there are two reasons not to write off his presidency so soon. His bark is plainly much worse than his bite. The first reason is that within the American domestic context he is finding it very hard to get his way. On issue after issue he has been defeated. But secondly, and more important from our position in the UK, it is obvious that on the international stage his scope and space are highly limited, partly for the reasons already mentioned and partly because there are now global forces at work which are much larger and much more powerful than even the great USA itself. By “larger forces” I mean the rising power of Asia—China in particular, but not just China—which now produces the bulk of the world’s GNP outside the OECD. I mean the remorseless growth of new networks cutting across the old rules of sovereign states and severely limiting, indeed cancelling out, the role of the superpowers of the last century, whether we are referring to China or the United States, ensuring that the rhetoric of “America first” simply does not work in practice. It is not quite a post-western or a post-Atlantic world, but it is one in which power is shared with the Indian Ocean and the Pacific arenas.

These dramatically changed circumstances colour our relationship with the United States in entirely new ways. It is still special, in that we share many common values and have obvious affinities based on history and culture, but it is quite different from the relationships of the past. America is our partner in the new age, but not our boss. We do not need to be—in fact, must not become—its obedient poodle, let alone its gun dog. The phrase “solid not slavish” was used by my noble friend Lord Hague when he summed it up a while ago, and it remains an entirely apposite and concise description of what the relationship should be. The network is a great equaliser of nations and people, and it is healthy to escape from our overdependency on America. To put the matter colloquially, in the age of hyperconnectivity and soft power, we have other fish to fry.

Commonwealth Summit: Faith Leaders

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Monday 15th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I would of course be delighted to work with the noble Lord in this respect but, as he will be aware, I have already written directly on a couple of occasions to all parliamentarians across both Houses. I have met on a systematic and periodic basis with all the chairs of the various APPGs leading on the Commonwealth, including the chairs of the Commonwealth APPG, and we will look to host specific parliamentary events during the week of CHOGM.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as in the register. Will my noble friend accept that the move by the Government to engage business, civil society and other interests in the forthcoming summit is extremely welcome but that the need now is to begin to focus on outcomes and positive results from the summit, not just on prosperity and trade, security and defence, the promotion of human rights and gender equality but in a variety of other areas, particularly those which benefit the United Kingdom itself?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

My noble friend speaks with great experience and I totally agree with him. The Government, along with the secretariat and the Secretary-General—and, it would be fair to say, member states across the Commonwealth—are focused on ensuring that the summit’s outcomes will drive the agenda for the UK’s two-year chairmanship.

Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [HL]

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Report: 1st sitting: House of Lords
Monday 15th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Faulks (Con)]

My Lords, I do not want to disappoint the noble Lord, Lord Collins, by not intervening, albeit briefly, in this debate. My difficulty comes not with the way that the noble Lord and others have expressed their various objectives, which one would expect to be part of the Government’s approach to sanctions generally. I am concerned by the fact that the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, wants to exclude the specific reference to a foreign policy objective. I return to what I said in Committee, which was that it is important that we accept that foreign policy does not remain entirely stable and standing: there are always changes in the world and foreign policy objectives may vary from time to time. The danger of including these albeit admirable objectives is that there might conceivably be a construction placed on the relevant provision which is that foreign policy is not adequately reflected by the provisions.

I prefer the way the Bill is expressed, which gives the necessary flexibility. While I do not differ on the objectives, I differ on the amendments.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

Can I just ask my noble friend a question, and apologise to your Lordships that I was not involved in earlier stages of this legislation? Was there ever a time when, in deciding on sanctions policy, we did so other than in alliance with other nations? Unilateral sanctions can always be evaded, and even collective sanctions, when they are only from the west, can be nullified by actions by China, Russia and other Asian powers, for instance. Is not the practical situation one in which we have to take account of our allies and the broad consensus of agreement with them on whether sanctions are justified, or are there individual unilateral instances that I may have missed?

[The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon) (Con)]

My Lords, first, before I go any further, as I said in Committee on the Bill—and I shall come on to the specific question from my noble friend in a moment—I am genuinely grateful for the constructive engagement that we have had on all sides of the House on this very important Bill. The set of government amendments that I tabled last week reflects proposals through discussions and meetings that we have had with Peers and representatives from across the House, from the Opposition Benches and, indeed, from the Cross-Bench Peers. I am also pleased that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, and the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, also felt able, after our constructive discussions, to put their names to some of the government amendments, including the one that I shall present in a moment. It also reflects very strongly that, at a time of great challenge internationally, we reflect the finest traditions of your Lordships’ House, in that we are able to practically demonstrate co-operation across the House in ways to improve legislation.

I fully recognise that sanctions involve significant restrictions and should not be imposed lightly. The standard to be applied by a Minister when introducing sanctions regulations is therefore one of the most important parts of this Bill. I assure noble Lords that I have listened very carefully to the range of views on exactly what that standard should be, with a view to finding the right balance between the Government’s ability to impose sanctions when the relevant conditions are met and the need to guard against excessive use of these powers. I have therefore tabled Amendment 9, which introduces three additional requirements when a Minister is considering making sanctions regulations for a purpose beyond compliance with a UN or international obligation. First, the Minister must have good reasons to pursue that purpose; secondly, the Minister must be satisfied that the imposition of sanctions is a “reasonable course of action” for that purpose; and finally, when making regulations, the Minister must lay a report to Parliament explaining how the above two tests have been met.

These requirements are picked up again in Amendment 6, which is a technical drafting point consequential on Amendment 9. The requirement for the Minister to lay a written report before Parliament when making sanctions regulations reflects Amendment 7, proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Collins, and I am grateful for his suggestion. The principle that unites us here is that sanctions need to form part of a wider political strategy that is properly articulated to Parliament and the wider public. Amendment 9 aims to provide the House with the requested reassurance that sanctions will not be imposed lightly, while at the same time ensuring that the UK can continue to play an active and constructive role in international affairs. On that basis, I hope that noble Lords will be persuaded not to press Amendments 1 and 7.

Amendments 2 to 5 refer to the purposes for which sanctions regulations may be created. The current list of purposes in the Bill is designed to ensure that we can continue to implement sanctions across the full range of purposes currently pursued by EU sanctions. The EU can adopt sanctions for any of the purposes of its common foreign and security policy. The reference to “foreign policy objectives” in subsection (2) seeks to maintain this same scope for the UK when we have left the EU.

In Amendment 2, the noble Baronesses, Lady Northover and Lady Sheehan, propose to remove the ability to impose sanctions for the purpose of advancing a UK foreign policy objective. The amendment would restrict the flexibility of future UK Governments, potentially preventing them from using sanctions, and putting the UK out of step with our international partners, including the European Union. That was a point made well by my noble friend Lord Howell—and again, I appreciate his international experience in this regard. As I have said previously, and noble Lords have acknowledged, sanctions are at their best when they are acting in unison and in co-operation and co-ordination with partners.

Commonwealth Summit 2018

Lord Howell of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 13th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

If I may take the noble Lord’s questions in reverse, I agree with him on his second question. We need to identify new members; he will be aware that the Gambia has applied and is currently going through the process of rejoining the Commonwealth. We hope that will happen in the early part of the new year, in time for the summit. Representation of the overseas territories and the devolved Administrations very much forms part of the UK Government’s thinking. We are their voice and we are engaging directly with the devolved Administrations; further to that, as the Minister responsible for the Commonwealth, I will visit the different parts of the United Kingdom in this respect. We are also talking directly to the overseas territories to see how we can engage more effectively with them, and perhaps involve them in some of the other events around the Commonwealth summit, such as the four fora which will take place during Commonwealth week.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I wonder whether this is quite the right approach. The Minister will appreciate that at least six countries are interested in having associate status with the Commonwealth. He is absolutely right that it is not in Britain’s gift alone to deliver that but, on the other hand, we are the host of a vast summit. The Question rightly asks whether we could invite countries as observers. Is it not in our interest to develop the point that the Commonwealth is a vast transmission engine of potential soft power by this country? Should we not invite as many guests as possible to observe and be involved in some aspects, if not with full membership, of the Commonwealth summit?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

I agree with my noble friend’s sentiments. On soft power, I am sure he saw a survey last week showing that Britain retains its top position on the global stage in soft power. On the Commonwealth specifically, I am talking to the Secretary-General, the Commonwealth Secretariat and other member states to pick up some of the very points that my noble friend raised. We will see how we can engage more effectively with countries which are indicating their desire to join the Commonwealth family at some future time.