Queen’s Speech

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 18th May 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, who neatly summed up how we have ahead of us complexities and difficult decisions, not only for President Zelensky and the Ukrainian people but for the wider international community in coming to terms with the long-term implications of the horror that we have seen inflicted upon the people of Ukraine.

The German Chancellor, in his speech in February, used the significant term Zeitenwende—a watershed moment or sea change. As the Germans and others come to terms with how they are equipped to respond and reframe their foreign policy formed over many years, in this debate today we have been discussing how the UK is equipped to respond, not just to the immediate needs of Ukraine and others, but whether we are a trusted partner for many who will be addressing the very significant secondary and tertiary impacts around the world, especially with those countries least equipped to deal with humanitarian and food security issues themselves.

I am the 14th Liberal Democrat speaker in this debate, which was opened so ably by my noble friend Lady Smith on defence, followed by my noble friends Lord Lee and Lord Burnett, who also commented on elements of defence policy. That demonstrates that we on these Benches are a liberal movement open to the world, internationalist in spirit and belief, founded on principles of foreign policy outlined in terms that have been consistently held since Gladstone outlined them 140 years ago. Half of that period has been in the reign of this sovereign—a remarkable feat for Her Majesty, looking at the sweep of her reign.

However, in many respects we have heard in today’s debate that the future can move backwards, with war in Europe, a development strategy from the Government that harks back to the 1980s, trade barriers re-erected, global hunger and poverty increasing rather than decreasing, UK defence expenditure now back to 2010 levels, development spending back to 2013 levels, and Armed Forces levels back many generations.

In this gracious Speech, there was considerably less on international issues than in previous years and no mention at all of development, which is breathtaking given the consequences of war in Europe. The highlight of the trade element, as introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Grimstone, was a Bill we are expecting on the Australia and New Zealand trade agreement, from which the Government’s own mid-estimate is that we are likely to yield an increase in UK GDP of between 0.00% and 0.08% over 15 years. However, I am glad to hear from the noble Lord that all parts of the UK will benefit from this bounty.

We have seen regression on free trade from this Government, with extra barriers, burdens and bureaucracy, as my noble friend Lord Palmer highlighted. For the first time in trading history, the UK has waged a trade war on itself. According to the latest ONS data, the UK is the only G7 country to contract in trade in 2021 and, as my noble friend Lord Taverne indicated on the decline in trade with our nearest neighbours, the latest OECD data shows a four-year average to this point of a 2.3% increase in total trade for the EU market, compared to an anaemic 0.7% average growth for the UK over the same period. We shall need to reconsider reconnecting and revisiting a UK-EU security and defence arrangement, energy and climate arrangements and reconnections on trade and practical movement of people—reconnecting, not cancelling, EU connections, as my noble friend Lady Ludford highlighted.

Many aspects of today’s debate have ranged broadly, as they should, from the climate emergency to the continuing impacts of the Covid pandemic, war in Europe and the energy supply crisis. Some are directly linked, some are causal and some were already sending the world on a problematic trajectory before the Ukraine war. Many of them in isolation would be too difficult for many countries to tackle themselves. They therefore require a commensurate shift in scale from the UK—a UK sea-change, in many respects.

Ukraine was the very solemn backcloth to this debate. My noble friend Lady Suttie highlighted very eloquently the challenges and pressures that exist, so I need not go into more detail as she summed it up perfectly. She highlighted a human and parliamentary element: she mentioned her contact Ostap, a clerk in the Verkhovna Rada. When I visited the Verkhovna Rada in 2014, when the buildings were still charred from the aggression of the Euromaidan, Ostap gave me a tour of the Parliament. He said—this is humbling for me—that a staff member of a democratic Parliament is called up to take arms to protect a democratic people and Parliament. That brings into context exactly what we are debating today.

However, the debate goes wider. What is the platform on which we in the UK respond to the much wider secondary impacts? On Monday, the development strategy was released—without Statement or debate—paragraph 30 of which says:

“Our approach to international development will be as a patient partner that champions openness, predictability and the rule of law.”


On the very next day, the Conservative chair of the Northern Ireland Select Committee asked the same Foreign Secretary who launched that strategy:

“Respect for the rule of law runs deep in our Tory veins, and I find it extraordinary that a Tory Government need to be reminded of that. Could my right hon. Friend assure me that support for, and honouring of, the rule of law is what she and the Government are committed to?”—[Official Report, Commons, 17/5/22; col. 550.]


That jarring juxtaposition was highlighted by my noble friend Lord Campbell. If we are going to be responding to the increasing level of autocrats in the world, the growth in the number of fragile states—which receive only passing reference in the development strategy, and where we are now again seeing evidence of the growth in the recruitment of Daesh—and the growth in mercenary activity, then the UK needs to be a trusted partner.

On the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine, with the United States committing $40 billion, the EU over €30 billion, and the UK’s support—which we have supported on these Benches—we should not be blind, as has been raised in the debate, to the massive impact of food insecurity and the humanitarian consequences. The Biden Administration have made the correct calculation that, for many people who live in countries that are still considered non-aligned, who do not always believe our narrative in the UK and the West on the war in Ukraine and who are now seeing chronic food insecurity and risk, they are balancing the question as to whether they will blame Putin or the sanctions. The American Administration have therefore allocated £5 billion for immediate support for development relief and food support.

I congratulate the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, on the birth of his grandchild yesterday. Yesterday in the world 385,000 children were born; 39,000 of them will have been born in absolute hunger and poverty. My noble friend Lord German highlighted that those children will be denied educational opportunities. The UK response, instead of extra support, has been cutting support on development for those least able to support themselves. Not only that, in the development strategy we are undermining the very multilateral bodies we should be leading and helping shape. I ask the Minister: how much of the £1.3 billion committed to Ukraine—of which we are supportive—will be ODA and will we be lifting the 0.5% cap, or will that be offset by cuts elsewhere?

Lord Chidgey last year referenced the slashing bilateral aid cuts to African countries. He is greatly missed in debates in this House. UK aid statistics published last month show a 26% decrease in bilateral ODA. Now we are told this will be U-turned, but with no extra resources. The aid statistics published last week show the highest share of multilateral spend from the UK since 2014, at the same time as the Government are saying that this is the wrong thing to do. There is utter incoherence.

We all know that the Government have reneged on the legal commitment to 0.7% support. The foreword to the 2015 strategy—when Liberals were in government working with Conservatives and with consensus on development from the Labour Party—started with the second sentence on the first page reading:

“We firmly believe that spending 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on international development … means our country walking taller in the world.”


However, respect for this legal requirement finds itself on the last page in the last paragraphs of this development strategy.

My noble friends Lady Northover, Lord Hussain, Lord Bruce and Lord Sharkey highlighted other conflict areas or protracted disputes; I will close with another. Winding his speech from these Benches in the first debate on the humble Address in Her Majesty’s reign in 1952 was Viscount Samuel. I will close with his words from Hansard.

“For five years I had the great honour, as representative of the British Crown and under the supervision of the League of Nations, to preside over the Administration which laid the foundations of the modern State in Palestine. That task was accomplished and all went well for some years afterwards, but of late there have been conflict and war. Although the war is over, there is still no peace, and grave suffering has been caused, particularly to the Arab refugees. I most earnestly hope that the United Nations now will take active steps to bring about a settlement. … I end by quoting famous words, in their literal sense as well as in the symbolic, mystical sense in which they are familiar in the Churches throughout the world: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.’”—[Official Report, 6/11/1952; cols. 103-04.]


We will see, even if war is over, that there may still be no peace and there may be grave suffering. We should strive to ensure that the future does not go further back but goes forward.