The Prime Minister announced that he is merging the Foreign & Commonwealth Office with the Department for International Development so that the UK’s interests are better protected and that we can better target our aid budget. I made the point that eradicating poverty across the world is in the UK’s interests, and would the Prime Minister guarantee that, following this change, we will continue to fund poverty reduction projects through health and education (particularly of girls) provisions across the world, not only for our own interests but for humanitarian reasons as well. He agreed with me on this point, particularly about educating girls.
The full exchange was as follows:
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
Does the Prime Minister agree with me that it is in Britain’s interests to have a poverty reduction programme across the world? Will he guarantee, after this change, that the Government will still continue to concentrate on education and health, particularly the education of girls, across the world and that—not only for the benefit of Britain, but for humanitarian purposes—we carry on the poverty reduction programmes?
The Prime Minister
Yes, and at the heart of the mission of the new Department will be 12 years of quality education for every girl in the world, which I think is probably the single best thing you could do for the future of our planet.