UK Development Partnership Assistance

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Thursday 29th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Featherstone, for securing this debate. I fear that my contribution will be a mere shadow of the exemplary exposition of the challenges and issues in this policy area which was set out so ably at the start of this discussion.

I congratulate my noble friends Lady Hyde of Bemerton and Lord Barber of Chittlehampton on their magnificent maiden speeches. They demonstrated not only passion and acuity of mind but a strong moral purpose and compass. I know that they will both provide immense service to this House in the years to come. My noble friend Lord Barber, with his love of cricket, brings with him a capacity for endless patience, which in my brief two weeks here I have learned is something of a need in your Lordships’ House. Last week, when a number of us made our maiden speeches from these Benches, we were dubbed “the quartet.” Having seen my noble friend Lady Hyde carrying a guitar around already in this House, I think that we may already have found our accompanist.

I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Browne on his final speech to your Lordships’ House and thank him for his service to the Labour Party, to this House and to our nation. It was definitely the most gracious and generous valedictory speech that I have heard in this Chamber today.

The international environment is increasingly volatile. We have conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East. We have trade wars. We have a decline in multilateral aid. We have a rise in new technologies and the spread of populism. This is all contributing to an increasingly challenging global future. The answer is seen by some as the greater exercise of hard power. There is much hard power on display in the world at present. We see coercion and extortion undertaken by global superpowers as a stick with which to beat others into submission. However, if hard power is a stick, then soft power—the ability to achieve goals through willing attraction—is the carrot. Without stretching this metaphor too far, I hope, I suggest that we have many carrots in our soft power larder. Universities and their scientific research, professional qualifications and regulatory regimes, cultural history and assets, the beauty of our countryside, the magnetism of our cities, and our sporting achievements and prowess are all essential in how the UK is seen and therefore able to act in the world.

However, the UK’s status as a trusted international actor is not guaranteed. Strategic rivals such as Russia and China are investing heavily in soft power and exerting influence over multilateral institutions and globally significant regions such as Africa, south Asia and the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, we see the whole-scale withdrawal of the United States from this arena, so it is more vital than ever that we leverage UK soft power to our national advantage. Therefore, I welcome strongly the establishment of the UK Soft Power Council and look forward to it building a critical mass of institutions, organisations and sectors around a clear set of priorities.

We also need to do more to join up international development approaches and funding with a diplomatic strategy, our defence and foreign policy and our approach to international trade. We need a genuinely co-ordinated and coherent narrative about what Britain stands for in a modern age and how our approach to international affairs is more strongly linked to domestic support for this agenda.

Through the usual lens, international development is seen as a reflection of moral purpose and virtue. It is seen by many people as an act of international charity, but unfortunately the evidence from polling is that the public, especially in difficult times as now, think that charity should begin at home. We therefore need to widen the argument for why international development, both multilateral and unilateral, is essential to our nation’s security. That means supporting areas in times of conflict to reduce the forced migration of people, avoiding the misery, heartbreak and trauma that many face of having to leave home and homeland.

We need to be smart about the use of our resources. I understand the significance to many of 0.7%, 0.5% or 0.3% of GDP, but I remain unconvinced that spend alone is the most important factor of success. We should instead look at leveraging our genuine and unique strengths in the UK international development sector in post-conflict recovery, infrastructure design and delivery, capacity building at a local level, especially in skills, and project management and effective use of resources. This approach should guide our next steps, and I believe that the future of this area should be grounded in values of fairness, equality, respect for the law and, above all, an ambition for democracy, peace, prosperity and opportunity for all.