Over the last four months, we have been reconnecting Britain for our security and prosperity. Last week I set out my vision for modernising international development, and as I speak the Foreign Secretary is in Samoa, meeting Heads of Government from the Commonwealth, and he has engaged with countries from every continent.
The BBC World Service is vital UK soft power. The Foreign Office’s contribution to its funding is about £100 million per year—about the cost of an F-35 fighter jet. The UK has plans to acquire 74 of these fighter jets. Would the Minister agree that we might consider acquiring only 73 of them, if that was the price of preserving the BBC World Service?
Order. Would the hon. Member for Plymouth Moor View (Fred Thomas) please not walk behind the Minister while he is in the middle of his answer? I am really going to have to say something to the Whips.
We provide £104 million to the BBC World Service. That is very good value indeed. I will not seek to get into budget negotiations in advance of the Budget—I know better than that—but I agree very much about the importance of the World Service and the vital function it provides internationally.
Recent events in Moldova are yet another example of the importance of combating the modern scourge of weaponising disinformation. What new measures are the Government planning to implement to counter disinformation spread by our adversaries?
I am grateful to the shadow Foreign Secretary for raising such an important issue. We are launching a new global programme to support resilient, free, open and trustworthy independent media as a bulwark against disinformation. That builds on the success of previous media development programmes. We are also determined to work with international partners, including UNESCO, to make sure that we play a role in combating disinformation.
Further to the comment from the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley), does the Minister share my dismay that, although the director general of the BBC professes that it represents a key source of democratic soft power in the face of the spread of state and non-state disinformation, it now intends to cancel its internationally admired interview programme “HARDtalk”, which has a global reputation for holding those in power to account?
Any editorial decisions on BBC content will be made by the BBC alone—that is right and proper. All I can say is that wherever I am in the world, it is clear quite how powerful the BBC is—a soft power perhaps, but a very important reflection of our values as a country and of deep connections between the people of Britain and other nations. We are determined to ensure that that remains the case.
T2. While we await the outcome of the Foreign Secretary’s reviews and our Chancellor’s forthcoming Budget, and remain confident that the Home Office’s plans will be successful in reducing domestic refugee costs, this issue remains of concern across the House. Will the Minister reassure the House that she will do everything she can to protect these aspects of our foreign aid budget, and will she meet me and concerned colleagues to discuss how we can take them forward after the Chancellor’s Budget?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. I would be very happy to meet him and other Members, particularly from the Government Benches, where we have a considerable number of MPs with direct experience of international development work. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is committed to bringing order to the asylum system. She has taken steps to unblock the backlog of claims. The fact that we lacked a plan to do that previously led to spiralling costs, which hit the international development budget very hard.
Order. I have to get through the list of questions, and you are not helping me. You are taking far too long. I have to get the Back Benchers in—it matters to them and to their constituents. You have to work with me, and today has been a pretty awful day all round. I call the Lib Dem spokesperson to give us a good example.
Laila Soueif is in the Gallery with us today. She is currently on hunger strike in protest against the continued imprisonment of her son, the British-Egyptian citizen Alaa Abd el-Fattah, in Egypt despite the end of his five-year sentence on 29 September. In 2022, the then shadow Foreign Secretary talked about serious diplomatic consequences for Egypt failing to release Alaa, and of leveraging our trading partnership with Egypt to progress the case. Does the Minister agree with the now Foreign Secretary on those points, and will the Government take steps—
I welcome Laila to the House. I saw her in Cairo last week, and raised these issues with the Egyptian Foreign Minister. Alaa’s case is very much in our mind, and we will do everything we can to secure his release as quickly as we can.
T4. In 2020, the US committed £250 million to support peace building and Palestinian economic development. Will the Minister consider how we can work with our partners in the US, using our world-leading development expertise and our experience in conflict resolution in Northern Ireland, to take a lead in this vital work?
My hon. Friend asks an important question. Peace building at a civil society level has an important role to play in trying to resolve this conflict. I will write to him with details of our plans.
T3. I welcome this Government’s ambition in seeking a new climate finance goal at COP29 in Baku shortly. Will the Minister assure me that she understands the scale of need? The UN Environment Programme says that 10 to 18 times more funding is needed for adaptation than is currently on the table. Will she make sure that it includes loss and damage and is additional to aid?