MPs should not be ‘friends’ of foreign governments
The loyalty of UK MPs should be to this country. It is unethical to be a friend of a foreign country and to take its government’s money to go on trips to promote its policies
As new MPs get their feet under the parliamentary table, new backbench groups are being set up. They are All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs). Just before the general election there were 100 backbench groups specifically promoting good relations with foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Yemen. Of course, the really controversial group is promoting friendship with Israel.
This means that there are just over half the nation states in the United Nations (which comprises 193 countries) with representation in the UK parliament and links with MPs.
It is an odd state of affairs. Most of the groups state that it is their purpose is something like ‘to foster good relations’. Many MPs conduct this by going on very jolly trips to the particular country, often paid for by the foreign government or a front organisation. This is a form of corruption that hardly gets any comment.
I can quite see why MPs want to go on a trip to Cyprus, Mexico or Spain and get it all paid for. Even trips to less enticing countries that might represent interesting foreign affairs challenges can be useful.
The problem is that it looks like they are being bought. Whilst they may be critical of what they find but it just doesn’t look like it.
I am all in favour of British MPs visiting other countries and learning about their politics and culture but it should be independently funded or even funded by our government. The integrity of our MPs should be beyond reproach. They should not be funded by foreign governments or front organisations that promote friendship of suspect governments.
The website Declassified claims that 240 MPs went on all-expenses paid trips to Israel at a cost of some £500,000. Some of them also visited Palestine or the West Bank, but not all. Obviously this is controversial and sensitive at the moment. The APPG is just one of the organisations funding trips to Israel for MPs.
Many of the all party parliamentary groups not linked to particularly countries do good work. The subject groups - net zero, cycling, restorative justice, and many more, including the group on beer (!) - cover topical and complicated issues and often do the work that ministerial departments cannot do. Excellent work has been done on human rights, various health issues and diseases and poverty by APPGs investigating topical issues and supported by charities or citizens.
New rules are being introduced in this parliament to deal with inappropriate APPGs and I would suggest getting rid of all the country groups and funding by foreign governments and their front organisations. British MPs should be paid only by the British people and should be working for us.
Good piece. Looks like there are only four/five country group APPGs left after the recent rule changes barring foreign state funding, so it's clearly had a big impact https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/240828/register-240828.pdf