Contribution
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis). I enjoyed his detailed and comprehensive remarks.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate on this important Bill, but I start by paying tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for his maiden speech, which shared his story and the promise of our country. I declare my interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the Commonwealth, a role I was elected to before the summer recess, and my newly minted role as a member of the executive of the UK branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
The Commonwealth is all about creating opportunities, and never more so than today, because I have the opportunity to give my first speech without a time limit, which I will enjoy. I welcome the Minister to his place. It is the first time I have had the opportunity to speak with him on the Front Bench. I am looking forward to working with him and the Foreign Office team in the years ahead. I have known my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary for most of my life. I had the benefit of being his constituency twin during the election campaign, so he had the great pleasure of being able to visit Newcastle-under-Lyme and enjoy our warm hospitality, not least at the Victoria pub on Brampton Road.
The Bill has been through the wars and was rudely interrupted, as we have heard, by the general election. I am very pleased that the Government have brought it forward so speedily. Where we can work together and make cross-party progress, we should do so as often as we can. I join the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns), in acknowledging the work of the former Member for Basingstoke, Dame Maria Miller. I also acknowledge all the CPA staff, led by the excellent Sarah Dickson, who I believe may be watching the deliberations this afternoon.
The Bill is about our standing on the world stage, and our role as a leader in the fight for human rights, respect, decency and togetherness. As the Minister pointed out, it grants international status to both the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the International Committee of the Red Cross, enabling both those reputable and long-standing bodies to benefit from the immunities and privileges of all other international bodies, as set out in clauses 1 and 2. Those immunities and privileges include the power to confer the legal capacities of a body corporate on the CPA and the ICRC; to grant the organisations, their information and staff certain privileges and immunities commensurate with their functional needs; to provide that references to international organisations in general legislation include from now on references to the CPA and the ICRC; and to allow for certain confidential information.
As ever, the United Kingdom must lead by example, so although the Bill may feel technical in nature, as the shadow Minister said, there is a wider point here about our leadership at home and abroad. That is why it is so important that we keep the CPA headquartered here in the United Kingdom. The Bill has my full support and, I hope, judging by the comments of the Liberal Democrat spokesperson and the shadow Minister, it will have support right across the House later this afternoon.
This may not be the most oversubscribed Second Reading debate since the general election, but that should not be misinterpreted as a lack of support for, a lack of faith in, or a lack of commitment to the Commonwealth, its legacy and its potential. With that in mind, and given that the Bill will help improve our reputation with our Commonwealth partners and friends enormously, I wish to take a moment to talk about the Commonwealth, and what it means for today’s world and for people in Newcastle-under-Lyme and right across the global community. As we look to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting taking place in the Pacific, we can see that this Bill is an important and long overdue step being taken by the United Kingdom.
In Samoa, Heads of Government, women, men and young people from across the Commonwealth will come together to share ideas, best practice, values and thoughts for moving our global family forward, and for making their deliberations mean something in each of our communities and nations. That is important, because our world is in a state of real flux. We at once seem ever more interconnected and as though we are being driven further and further apart. Political leaders across the world seem more interested in putting up barriers and walls than tearing them down, more interested in what divides us than what unites us, and some have no interest in bringing people together. That is a matter of deep concern to me, but it also shows the power and the importance of the Commonwealth family of nations.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary organisation of 56 independent and equal countries—perhaps not equal in size of economy or population, but equal as their leaders sit round the table, engage and listen. Our Commonwealth family is made up of about 2.5 billion people, and includes both advanced economies and developing countries, sun and snow, global north and global south, palm trees and oaks, kangaroos and cattle, and women, men and children who all deserve a chance to get on in life, to succeed and to feel safe and secure.