John Baron MP highlights flaws with British Council closures

MP: Closures hurt alliances with key allies

The British Council All-Party Parliamentary Group is pursuing a campaign to persuade the Government to abandon its plans to close some of its overseas offices by closing the £10 million shortfall in the British Council’s finances. On 7th June John and the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Tom Tugendhat MP, delivered a letter to the Prime Minister to this end signed by over 100 MPs and Peers. Amongst 20 others, the British Council’s offices in Afghanistan and Australia will be closed.

John said,

“Reducing the British Council’s international presence and retreating on the global stage will do damage to our soft power and is not compatible with the Government’s foreign policy priorities as set out in the Integrated Review.”

“Withdrawing the British Council’s physical presence in Afghanistan sends entirely the wrong message to the thousands of Afghan citizens it has interacted with over the years – even the Afghan President took part in British Council activities as a young man.”

“Over the last 20 years Britain has invested heavily in Afghanistan, in every sense. We made a promise to the Afghan people that we would not abandon them, and almost in one fell swoop we are withdrawing our military support, which many Afghans believe helps keep the Taliban at bay, as well as our British Council offering. This will live long in the memory.”

“In addition, announcing plans to withdraw the British Council’s ground operations in Australia in the middle of the ‘2021-22 UK-Australia Season’ is a real clanger by any standard, and undermines the goodwill generated by the successful trade negotiations. It also gives the strong impression that the different branches of the British Government are not liaising with each other, which is not a good impression to broadcast to the world.”

“There will be many such other examples if the Government presses on with these damaging closures, which risk damaging relationships with close allies all to save the comparatively small sum of £10 million.”

“These closures do not fit well with our ‘Global Britain’ or Integrated Review ambitions – something which is recognised by many in Government. Let us hope No 10 rethinks this before it is too late. The British Council APPG’s campaign is not over, and I look forward to further discussions with the Government and our debate on 30th June.”

Notes to Editors:

• Please also see: https://www.britishcouncil.org/british-council-future.
• The full list of affected countries is: Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Kosovo, Malta, Montenegro, Namibia, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Sudan, Switzerland, United States of America and Uruguay.