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Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill

I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak in support of the Bill. I start by offering my sympathy to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne), a geographical neighbour of mine who, like me, serves part of the borough of Stockport. I wish him well. I know from my conversations with him that he takes the Bill very seriously. He will be most disappointed not to be here as we, I hope, wave it forward on its way in the next hour or two. I congratulate the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble), whose original ten-minute Bill first brought the issue to the attention of the House. I was happy to sponsor that Bill, and I am equally happy to sponsor this Bill today. Not having stepped back fast enough, I am also speaking on behalf of the Liberal Democrat party. I am happy to record my party's strong support for the Bill, which it sees as an important and practical, although small, way of assisting some of the poorest countries in the world—and, more importantly, the millions of poor people who will benefit when this legislation comes into force. As the hon. Member for Northampton, North said, this Bill is in some ways a little more refined than her ten-minute Bill, and it is none the worse for that. It is ready for implementation, subject to whatever is said in Committee. I should make a disclaimer. As my constituents know, I am a stout defender of animal welfare. However, I should make it clear that international financial vultures are not included in my view of what should be protected by the House. I have served on the International Development Committee for the past year or so. Although I thought I already knew about some of the key issues, it has been an eye-opener to have seen the work done in many heavily indebted countries to tackle poverty and make a reality of the millennium development goals. It is absurd that a great deal of work should be put in by non-governmental organisations, governmental organisations and multilateral donors to tackle the millennium development goals, to bring improvements to health and education and alleviate poverty in poor countries, while people operating from anonymous offices in financial centres around the world are exploiting the UK courts to take back some of the money that has been so hard won and negotiated so carefully for the purposes of poverty alleviation. It is a particular cause of concern—anguish, even—for those of us who serve in the UK Parliament that the UK courts should have opened the door to all that and had a relaxed approach to such cases. That has made the UK one of the most—if not the most—favoured places for those anonymous financial experts to wreak their damage. As has already been mentioned in an intervention, those people do not seem to have too much shame, but they have enough to want to avoid the transparency that goes with full public disclosure. I welcome the fact that the Bill will tackle that issue as well. My remarks will not be extensive. The Bill is a necessary measure to close a loophole that most people probably do not believe could ever have existed in the first place. The Bill is well crafted and quite modest. I hope that it will get a very fair wind very quickly and that, not for the first time, what the House does on the issue of poverty reduction at an international level will be picked up in other parts of the world. There are other centres of financial services and court regimes and, if the loophole is shut here, those anonymous financial experts will no doubt start to look elsewhere in greater numbers than before. We already know that the United States legislature is looking at parallel proposals. I hope that this morning will start a domino effect that will end up closing, at worldwide level, this ridiculous loophole and redirecting income streams that were always intended to alleviate poverty in poor countries back to those countries without further delay.