Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by Dan Carden (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 2 October 2019 on behalf of the Department for International Development.

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Topical Questions

Question

The Secretary of State is failing to take labour rights seriously. He is a career investment banker by trade, and he has—[Interruption.] I think it is relevant that he has gone from corporate wealth management to managing the UK’s aid budget. Feronia, a Canadian palm oil company based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has received tens of millions of pounds of UK aid via the CDC Group; it has been plagued by scandal for years; and, in July, Joël Imbangola Lunea, a community activist involved in a land dispute with

Feronia, was allegedly murdered by a security guard employed by the company. Joël was father to eight children—

Answer

The hon. Gentleman is very welcome to write to me about the case. He wrote an article a few days back describing me as

“exploring ways to profit from human misery”.

May I just point out to him, with respect, that he could perhaps take some lessons from the Chairman of the Select Committee, who knows a lot more about development than he does?

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Secondary information

Type

Oral question

Reference

664 c1212 

Session

2017-19

Oral question type

Supplementary

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Subjects

Development aid Democratic Republic of the Congo Feronia

Link

View this Topical question on hansard.parliament.uk