The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth

Speech by Jo Swinson delivered to House of Commons on Thu 20th Mar 2008

Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) (LD): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for City of York (Hugh Bayley), who has done excellent and serious work as the chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. His speech was very well made. I hope that he did not mind my intervention too much; as the only Scot in the Chamber at the time, I felt a duty to make the point that I made.

I offer my apologies, as I will not be able to stay for the whole debate due to a commitment arranged some weeks ago. I intend to be back for the wind-ups. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) on his tenacity over several weeks in lobbying to get this debate, and I congratulate the Government on agreeing to have it in their time. Given that Commonwealth day was last Monday, the debate is timely.

Last week, I had the wonderful experience of going on a trip to the United Nations organised for parliamentarians by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office-so I was in New York on Commonwealth day. On that day, the British deputy permanent representative to the UN was hosting a reception to celebrate a new report about peacekeeping. At the reception was a variety of ambassadors and figures from member states of the UN and, particularly, member states of the Commonwealth. It was particularly moving that the Ugandan permanent representative to the UN read out a statement as part of a celebration of Commonwealth day. When I talked informally to representatives from a variety of Commonwealth countries, I was struck by the great value that they too placed on this association, this network, this great organisation and this lasting set of relationships. It is important that our debate is underscored by that.

Any debate entitled "The United Kingdom and the Commonwealth" will be wide-ranging, and it is welcome that so many different issues have been raised. I would like to confine my remarks to a few key points-the importance of the Commonwealth and the roles that it can play in resolving conflict and tackling climate change, and the rights of Commonwealth citizens in this country.

We have already heard about the great importance of the Commonwealth. Two billion people live in Commonwealth countries, of which there are 53 across the globe, with a great mix of north and south, and a diversity of ethnicity, race, religions and cultures that are different across the countries and within them. They cross all the continents of the world, going from very large countries with huge populations, such as India, to very small island states.

The Commonwealth provides a welcome alternative international forum for discussing a range of issues. We have already heard about the millennium development goals and about climate change. While we have our formal structures through the EU and the UN, it is complementary to have, alongside those international governance structures, different groupings of countries coming together and engaging in dialogue.

We know about the great contribution that people from the Commonwealth make to the UK, with many thousands of Commonwealth citizens living and working here and contributing day in, day out, as doctors and teachers, or setting up businesses. They are choosing to make Britain their home, although, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey said, not always necessarily taking up British citizenship, which can create difficulties.

Diane Abbott: In the context of the very live debate that is taking place about citizenship and nationality, how immigrants have to be encouraged to feel British, and so on, no group of immigrants is more passionate about Britain and more passionately proud of being British than those from the Commonwealth. I think that the generation who came from the West Indies in the 1950s are almost more proud of Britain that those of us in this Chamber, and I would like to place that on the record.

Jo Swinson: I welcome the hon. Lady's intervention. I will pick up on that point when I come to the rights of Commonwealth citizens. There are many reasons why somebody living in Britain might want to retain the links with their home country and therefore not take up British citizenship, and that should not necessarily be to their detriment as regards their rights in this country. As we have heard, 7,000 of our armed forces come from Commonwealth countries. Strong links are created by the people from the Commonwealth who live here but retain family connections in other Commonwealth countries, and by the UK citizens who go and live in other Commonwealth countries, which is becoming increasingly important. All those factors help to bind the countries together.

I am pleased that the Minister mentioned the Commonwealth games, which are due to be held very close to my constituency, in Glasgow, in 2014. We are very much looking forward to that. Sport, like other cultural activities, provides an opportunity for countries to come together and share experiences. We should not underestimate the value of events and institutions such as the Commonwealth games.

In preparing for the debate, I did some research and managed to print off from the website a list of the Commonwealth countries, as well as their flags, which will no doubt stand me in good stead for pub quizzes or "Trivial Pursuit" questions. Looking down that list, I was struck by the sheer diversity of countries. Many of them I have visited and are very familiar and commonly talked about; some are more remote and far flung, and my opinions of them, like many other Members, I am sure, come from what we see on the news, read in the newspapers and, personally speaking in the case of Botswana, from the fabulous literature series "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency", which paints vivid pictures of that African country. I have to put my hands up and confess to some ignorance, because when I saw the state of Kiribati listed, I scratched my head and was not sure where it was. I have asked several people since and have not managed to get an answer. The Minister may be able to fill us all in on that one and stand us in better stead for trivia quizzes.

Meg Munn: I will happily respond. It is pronounced, so I am told, "koobats", and it is a Pacific island. I met a delegate from there when I was at the Commonwealth meeting of Women's Affairs Ministers. As my hon. Friend the Member for City of York (Hugh Bayley) said, it is a low-lying area and one of the many islands that are at risk.

Jo Swinson: I thank the Minister for informing us of something that some of us may not have known before.

Several countries on the list have been in the news often recently. That is where the Commonwealth has had an important role in safeguarding peace and security and sometimes stepping in and playing a role in resolving disputes. Kenya has been mentioned already. For many years, Kenya was a great success story in Africa, with a burgeoning economy and a stable political system. Indeed, the elections in 2002 were widely praised for the fair and free way in which they were undertaken. It was in that context that we all saw, to our horror, the events unfolding late last year and early this year, with violence and people being killed and having to flee their homes as a result of the conflict after the disputed elections.

However, we have also seen, and should take heart from, the value of international diplomacy, with the action taken not only by Kofi Annan but by a variety of countries behind the scenes, including Commonwealth countries. That has managed to bring Kenya back from the brink of disaster and, it is to be hoped, to create a platform for a peaceful resolution of the tension and to prevent further violence. We are still in the early days of the power-sharing agreement between the two parties, but we all hope that we will be able to secure a stable future for Kenya, that it will get the constitutional reform that is needed, and that the Commonwealth states will be able to continue to support it and see it returned to its former role as a successful figurehead country that manages to be an example to other countries in the region.

Another somewhat fragile state is Pakistan. In the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto we have had many debates and questions in this House. It caused a great deal of concern, particularly in the run-up to the elections on 18 February. It is pleasing that those elections passed off with relatively little disruption. The new political mix marks quite a change in public opinion in Pakistan, with the parties of Sharif and Zardawi working together. There may be some hope that Pakistan has a somewhat brighter future, although, again, we are very much in the early stages. I welcome the Minister's comment that the Commonwealth hopes to be able to support Pakistan to fulfil the conditions needed to become once more a full member of the Commonwealth and embrace democratic representation and the rule of law.

Sierra Leone is another great success story for international co-operation. The strong links between the UK and Sierra Leone through the Commonwealth were clearly part of the motivation for the UK to intervene to end the crippling civil war that was taking place in that country. At the end of last year, I had the great privilege, along with the hon. Member for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-Thomas), who I hope will share those experiences with the House later, and the hon. Member for North Thanet (Mr. Gale), of travelling to Sierra Leone with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy as one of the later parts of the project that the hon. Member for City of York described. I did not really know what to expect from a visit to the third poorest country in the world, which had been ravaged so recently-within the past five or six years-by a devastating civil war. I had not expected to find the great positivity, which was absolutely everywhere, whether in the smiling faces when we went into the Parliament building or in the streets with the coconut sellers and the bustle that was going on. There was such a sense of optimism, given the horrors that every family has experienced, as we learned when we spoke to people when we were waiting for the ferry or travelling around. Everybody had lost a brother, a father, an uncle, a mother or a daughter in the civil war, if not several relatives, yet they managed to have this wonderful outlook. That can-do attitude will take Sierra Leone far, but we have to recognise that it has been made possible by interventions. Indeed, they feel strongly full of thanks for the UK's intervention, and the Department for International Development is still the biggest development agent working out there at the moment. I am sure that we will hear more from the hon. Member for Crosby about Sierra Leone because I know that she is a frequent visitor to that country.

While we can recognise the successes internationally, we also, sadly, need to recognise where we have failed. Zimbabwe is a case in point. The hon. Member for City of York shared some horrifying statistics with us; inflation, depending on which figures we believe, stands between 7,000 per cent. and 13,000 per cent.; four out of five people are living below the poverty line; and a quarter of people have had to flee their home. It is a truly horrific situation brought about by the destructive impact of Mugabe's regime. It was right that, in 2003, the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting-CHOGM, which is an interesting and amusing acronym-focused on the role of Zimbabwe and considered whether suspending it would be the right way to bring the Commonwealth's influence to bear. Of course, at that point Mugabe decided that he would take Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth. It is regrettable that we have not been able to gain greater influence on that country, and that we have not used our abilities to talk to neighbouring countries to get them to bring more pressure to bear, because it is the people of Zimbabwe who are suffering.

Kate Hoey: I agree that it is sad that the Commonwealth has not been more involved in Zimbabwe. Does the hon. Lady agree that it is also sad that the African Union, and South Africa in particular, did not press for Commonwealth observers at the elections being held last week? That would have helped to give some credibility to what will be a totally flawed election process.

Jo Swinson: The hon. Lady is quite right. Indeed, Human Rights Watch has produced a report and concluded that the elections will be deeply flawed because of factors such as people not being allowed to register to vote, dead people being allowed to register and the repression of opposition parties. The situation there is very difficult. One chink of light may be the former Finance Minister, who is challenging Mugabe and could provide another way forward. Perhaps that is a vain hope, but the electoral process has to be the bedrock of a country's stability. When that is flawed, as we saw in Kenya, the consequences can be dire. Zimbabwe is one country where we cannot bask in the glow of success of what we have achieved internationally, and I press the Government to use every available channel open to them to take further action.

The theme of Commonwealth day 2008 was "The Environment, Our Future", and it is right that an international organisation such as the Commonwealth focuses on climate change. I am a member of the Environmental Audit Committee, which is undertaking an inquiry into the international context after Kyoto. One of the things that we have found is frustration caused by the UN negotiations-how slow and bureaucratic that process can be. After speaking to some of those who take part in such negotiations, one begins to wonder whether we will ever find a solution and get international agreement.

We have to welcome, therefore, any other international bodies that can be used as a forum through which to push for progress, to encourage countries to take UN negotiations more seriously, and to allow unilateral action by countries, or groups working together, to cut carbon emissions. Most important, in the context of Commonwealth countries, it may allow for good adaptation measures. Countries such as India have an important role to play and I hope that it can be encouraged, as a rapidly industrialising country, to consider how it can learn from our past mistakes and create a far lower carbon economy than we have managed to.

Scientists tell us that it may not be possible to keep to a 2(o) rise in temperature; the figure may end up being higher. The impact of such change will be felt most harshly in many of our Commonwealth friends. Indeed, the small island states-the Tuvalus and Vanuatus-and some of the larger states, such as low-lying Bangladesh, are under great threat. Australia already experiences extreme weather patterns and just a small change will make those events more extreme, with really difficult consequences. Thankfully, its Government are now looking more seriously at what they can do to address climate change after almost a decade of denying its existence.

I feel that the world is beginning to wake up to the threat of climate change, but the analogy that I would use is that rather than its being a case of someone rolling over in bed, looking at the alarm clock, thinking, "Oh my goodness! I've slept in", and rushing out of the door to act immediately, it is more like someone waking up, having a stretch and a yawn and thinking, "Maybe I'll go and have some breakfast." The sense of urgency demonstrated by all the international institutions, and even, I would contend, by this Government, does not seem to match the scale of the challenge that we face. I urge the Government to act with a sense of greater urgency on this issue and, importantly, use their influence with our Commonwealth partners.

I turn finally to the rights of Commonwealth citizens in the UK. We have all spoken about the importance of the Commonwealth, and I am sure that we will hear more on that, so it is right that we think seriously about how we show Commonwealth citizens living in the UK that they are valued members of the community and that we value the network that is the Commonwealth. As the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone) mentioned, the proposal to get rid of ancestry visas has come back twice in four years. That is very worrying.

Meg Munn: I am glad that the hon. Lady referred to that because I would like to correct something that I said earlier. I mixed up my consultations-the consultation on the visitor visa finished in March, and the consultation on the ancestry issue does not finish until May, so there is still plenty of time for hon. Members and others to respond.

Jo Swinson: That is a welcome clarification, and I hope that the consultation responses will show that it is important to retain ancestry visas in order to keep our links with Commonwealth countries. I also hope that as a result of the consultation, the Government will decide that that is the right way forward.

Simon Hughes: The Minister was helpful in making that correction. Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be useful if all colleagues found out how many Commonwealth citizens were in their constituencies? In mine, probably about one in five of the community are such citizens. We have an obligation to ensure that those resident in this country understand the proposal because if they understand it, the Government will get a significant response.

Jo Swinson: My hon. Friend makes his point clearly and well.

The other issue concerning the rights of Commonwealth citizens in this country is their right to take part in our elections. The recent review on citizenship by the noble Lord Goldsmith, which was published this month, seemed to question whether that right should be retained. I think that it should be. It is important, and I would go further. As we have heard, many Commonwealth citizens work and live in the UK and contribute to our society, and for a variety of reasons, they retain citizenship in their own country. Often, they do not know that they are eligible to vote in this country. Rather than just preserving that right, which we should do, we should make a concerted effort to ensure that people are aware of it so that they can play a full role in the democratic process of this country. I urge the Government to promote that right, rather than remove it.

The Commonwealth is a hugely important organisation and a key part of UK heritage. It is also a vital part of the UK's future.