Overseas Development Assistance

Lord Tomlinson Excerpts
Tuesday 4th July 2017

(6 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Tomlinson Portrait Lord Tomlinson (Lab)
- Hansard - -

My Lords, does the Minister agree that his view on the Secretary of State is a view on her present pronouncements about development, not on her former pronouncement that the department ought to be abolished?

Lord Bates Portrait Lord Bates
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I think it is always best to judge politicians by their actions. When you look at what the Secretary of State is doing, what she has announced, the places she has been and the focus she has given to economic development, disability rights and family planning, in all these areas she has been at the forefront of humanitarian aid. The fact that she does so with an edge of demanding realism rather than sentimentality in approaching these things strengthens the delivery of the product.