Lord Wallace of Saltaire introduces a Liberal Democrat opposition day debate on embassy staffing and foreign policy

Lord Wallace of Saltaire (William Wallace) called attention to changes in the budget of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the levels of staffing in embassies and their effect on British foreign policy and on European co-operation on foreign policy.

Lord Wallace, who is Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson in the House of Lords, has been pushing to make the FCO more joined-up with other government departments, and a more positive actor within the developing frameworks of EU internal and external policies.

Lord Wallace spoke about the impact of cuts in the Foreign Office budget:

“I am no longer confident that the slimmer and slimmer FCO, with its tiny budget, can manage to provide the political overview that our Foreign Secretary rightly sees as its special role, to give us the “joined-up government” that is needed across particular negotiations. The Cabinet Office already holds the ring on European policy and is shouldering an expanding role in national security policy - not always in easy partnership with the FCO. However, people tell me that the Cabinet Office is currently in chaos, with far too high a turnover of staff and poor co-ordination between its different units; last year’s Civil Service capabilities review was sharply critical of its capabilities and performance.”

Lord Wallace said there might be a case for changing the name of some British embassies:

“Might I suggest that we should consider renaming our embassies across the EU - or even across the OECD world - as “British Government Representations”, to reflect the job that they now do and to underline how closely they relate, or should relate, to the whole of Whitehall? That would suggest less pomp and more encouragement of professional Government-to-Government interaction, parliament-to-parliament interaction, and wider than that. Further, I suggest that the heads of these representations should be drawn from a wider group within Whitehall than the FCO alone.”

Lord Wallace said it was important to take a more open and positive attitude to the proposed EU external action service:

“The width of the gap between aspirations and resources should encourage the Government to take a much more open and positive attitude to the proposed EU external action service than they have so far displayed. Since we cannot afford resident representation in some 50 UN member states, we have an interest in making the best of shared representation and common reporting where we can.

“These Benches hope that in the wake of the ratification of the amending treaty Britain will at last become a settled and positive actor within the developing frameworks of EU internal and external policies and will wish to make sure that we play a major role in the formation, development and staffing of the EU external action service. Perhaps even the Conservatives will come to recognise the evident advantages of embedding British diplomacy further within that framework.”

Click here to read Lord Wallace of Saltaire’s speech in full

Baroness Williams of Crosby (Shirley Williams) also spoke in the debate. She said:

“We should work within the structures of the European Union, not outside them - and the low-carbon economy is as good an example as one can find. I still find it quite extraordinary that we spent days in the House debating climate change and are about to spend days discussing the European Union's involvement in climate change, and actually the two could quite readily be incompatible in some areas. That seems a rather foolish form of management.”

Click here to read Baroness Williams of Crosby's speech in full