In Conversation with Brendan Clarke-Smith MP

Overview

Ryan Henson, CEO at the Coalition for Global Prosperity spoke with Conservative MP, Brendan Clarke-Smith, about

Opening remarks

Ryan Henson opened the event by welcoming guests and telling them about Coalition for Global Prosperity. The Coalition was dedicated to promoting Britain as a force for good in the world. He said they were non-partisan and brought together different stakeholders. He introduced Brendan Clarke-Smith MP, stressing he was elected in 2019 and was now PPS to the Minister without Portfolio.

Brendan Clarke-Smith said he had lived and worked in countries for much of his career and had learnt a lot on the International Development Committee since joining. He was, he said, a bit skeptical about what the UK had historically done with its foreign aid spending. Broadly, however, he said the UK did a good job with their aid spending.

Britain, he said, was a key player on the world stage and he said development was a keyway of doing this. His political philosophy, he said, was “helping people to help themselves” and he was interested in how the aid budget could do this and how this could be demonstrated to people.

Entry into politics

Ryan Henson asked Clarke-Smith what had gotten him into politics. Clarke-Smith said he things to him always seemed very black and white, and he had always looked up to Margaret Thatcher. Social mobility was also very important to him, Brendan Clarke-Smith stressed.

On the ‘red wall’, Brendan Clarke-Smith said there was extra attention on this new intake, saying it was one of the most diverse intakes. He said they were focused on ‘levelling up’ and stressed that in the next few years the Conservatives had to show people that “their lives were better”.

Younger people often moved away to the cities, he said, and he wanted the opportunity for them to be able to stay in their hometowns and communities.

Clarke-Smith agreed on the importance of community, and the ability for people to see a clear, evidenced improvement to their life. “There was more than just money to it”, he said.

Challenges facing the UK internationally and domestically

Clarke-Smith said the Ukraine situation was a clear demonstration of why Britain using soft power was important, saying it went further than military assistance, and extended to development and trade.

Generally, he said, it was important to demonstrate people the benefits of Brexit but acknowledged this would be more long term.

‘Levelling Up’ agenda V Global Britain

Clarke-Smith agreed it wasn’t right to see these two policy ambitions as completely separate, as they were all encompassing. If you changed the foreign aid discussion to, ‘Do you think you should help people in need’, then most people would agree with it, he said. He said it was important to change the language and discussion to ensure it wasn’t divisive.

One of the biggest issues in his inbox, he said, was about small boats crossing the channel. However, he said if you changed the issue onto why people were displaced, then you could “solve the problem on both sides”.

Brexit

Clarke-Smith said there were different dividing lines politically as a consequence of Brexit, but he said it wasn’t clear whether this was permanent. The Conservative party was a very broad church, he said, stressing that people joined because of the “overall philosophy”. The Brexit debate had passed to an extent, Clarke-Smith said.

International Development

Clarke-Smith said the argument of development was approached differently on the center right, saying the issue of transparency was an issue. He also said the stories that highlighted wasteful spending were damaging.

Clarke-Smith said he was “results based” and said whether there should be percentage targets at all was up for discussion. The commitment was still there, he said, but may need modifying and people should be pushing the idea of ‘prosperity’ in discussions.

Perception of the UK on world stage

Clarke-Smith said a lot of Eastern Europe was very topical, and the UK was very much seen as the defenders of liberty. The UK’s history was seen through a lens of ‘queen and country’ by him, he said.

He stressed that it was important for the UK to stress it was re-assessing its relationship with Europe, not ending it with Brexit.

It was important to identify allies with shared values, Clarke-Smith said. The UK needed to be there and be strong with its soft power, he said. “It was all about renewal” he said.

Defence spending

Clarke-Smith said it was the whole “securitization of aid” argument and said there were security elements to our aid delivery as it made the UK safer to help stabilize certain countries. It was not correct to see these issues in isolation, he said, as it prevented you to stop focusses on the wider issue.

Afghanistan

Clarke-Smith said the time the UK was in Afghanistan was not wasted, as educational opportunities and freedoms were increased during this period. He said he was disappointed with withdrawal, but said the UK had no option as they could not work unilaterally on these issues.

The UK had an ongoing humanitarian commitment, he said. He said it would be a very difficult few years for Afghanistan, he said.

Development spending

Clarke-Smith said he hated seeing public money wasted, and this was what he wanted to see prevented with foreign aid spending. He said this issue had consistently improved and there were a lot of checks and balances in place now. The projects were often very well-funded with partners, and not enough had been done in the past to clearly show people where this money had gone and the legacy of it.

He said it would be difficult for him to justify in his constituency not temporarily reducing the percentage of aid spending during the pandemic, as people had their salaries frozen etc.

“It was a good return on investment and morally the right thing to do,” he said.

International Development Strategy and extreme poverty

Clarke-Smith said there had been big steps taken to eradicate poverty. However, the pace of change needed to be accelerated internationally and the strategy should be joined up, he said. This is where trade came in, he argued.

Coordination between departments was crucial for the strategy, he said.

Multilateral organisation spending

A question was asked about funding being reduced to domestic charities, as more money was now going to multilateral organisations.

Brendan Clarke-Smith said one of the issues was agreements were made with multilaterals over a number of years and so were more locked in. He said this is where having private partners would be beneficial. Going forward, he said he expected the Government to ask more on delivery from multilaterals.