Yvette Cooper

Yvette Cooper

Labour — Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley

Speaking in the House of Commons on 19 March 2026

Debate

International Development

Contribution

We have to both increase our defence spending and champion international development in order to maintain our security here at home. That means focusing in particular on the areas where conflict is greatest. I worry that continued instability in Sudan, for example, allows extremist groups to flourish, which creates regional instability and increases migration. That is why we are continuing to support refugees in the region and in places like Turkey. Again, that is to prevent migration and instability. We are focusing our development funding and our policy measures on a lot of that prevention work. It is also important that we see this as investment and policy measures going hand in hand, and that we do not look at them in isolation.

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