Speeches by Harding.

“I understand—”

“Can I come back to the UK and the in-country refugee costs that the ODA budget is supporting? Given that the Government are trying to end that hotel accommodation by the end of the Parliament, is it your expectation that that money is going to come back into the ODA budget?”

“Does the drop in funding for fragile and conflict-affected states, combined with ringfencing some of those key priorities like Sudan, Ukraine and so on, mean there is going to be less money spent on those other fragile and conflict-affected states?”

“Yes, sorry, but I did want to come back on defence versus development. Given that we all agree that development is an essential part of stopping conflict, how do we stop this narrative about development or defence and stop the defence budget eating away at the development budget again?”

“I want to turn to displacement. With ODA falling, development programming to ensure that fragile countries remain liveable continues to suffer. What is the Department’s strategy for reducing forced displacement resulting from this?”

“I wanted to talk about Sudan, and I know we could take up a whole Committee on talking about it. Can I ask you what conversations the Government is having with the backers of the belligerent parties in Sudan, and what action they are taking to deter them from the continued support of belligerents?”

“How quickly can the programmatic spending pivot to places that look like they are about to erupt or are on the slow burn to being a place of conflict? Again, I am thinking about Somaliland and that part of Africa that is closest to the Iran conflict.”

“That sounds slightly worrying to me. I wonder what the Foreign Secretary and the Minister would say. Given Sudan, given what is happening around Sudan, Somaliland and, of course, the Iran war now that we are in, does there not need to be a focus and a fund that looks specifically at that?”

“Isn’t that about the narrative that you either have defence or development? Does not that lead us down a rabbit hole that if we need more defence, which presumably we will, we cut development even further? How do we protect against that?”

“There is no sustained funding pot for all those programmes—it is case by case in Africa?”

“The geographical portfolios for Africa, West Balkans and the Americas were absent from the statement that was given in February 2026 by the Minister of State for the Cabinet Office and Home Office. The geographical portfolios were missing. Will this work continue to be funded through the ISF via the FCDO?”

“When you talk about 12% of the public that does not support getting to 0.7, surely that is about leadership.”

“Can I turn to the integrated security fund? The Government announced a restructure of the ISF, but there was no mention of key geographic portfolios. Will this work continue to be funded through the ISF?”

“11. What steps she is taking to support flood preparedness projects in the Esher and Walton constituency.”

“May I start by asking the Foreign Secretary why this extremely important statement on Britain’s commitments overseas is being announced on a Thursday, when most MPs are not here? Is it perhaps because the Government are ashamed of these cuts and want them to slip out unnoticed? Something has gone badly wrong when a Lab…”

“The Thames runs the length of my constituency, making flooding a significant issue. The Thames Ditton flood group has brilliantly secured funding for temporary flood barriers but cannot deploy them because, despite its efforts, it is unable to obtain public liability insurance. It has contacted Flood Re, the British In…”

“But programmes have been cut as a result?”

“What is the assessment of the cuts between 2024 and 2025? What impact assessment has there been of that reduced funding within Syria?”

“Thank you, Minister, for coming to us. I know the middle east, other than Syria, is taking up a lot of time at the moment. In November 2025, you said, “humanitarian support overall has not been adequate to address the scale of the crisis in Syria”. Why, then, has the FCDO reduced bilateral aid funding by 36%, from £151…”

“I think there is a strong feeling that they resisted the ISIS threat for so long that they need to be supported as far as possible from the west, for want of a better term. Is it likely that that money, the £5 million, will increase over time, or is that it for now?”