When I was a kid our local MP in the beautiful constituency of East Devon was a remote figure, very distant from our lives. Last week his successor stayed at my Residence in Canberra. Hugo Swire, the FCO Minister of State whose responsibilities include Asia, was here for a very busy couple of days.
In Canberra he met Ministers, MPs and officials to discuss a range of foreign policy issues, including Ukraine, Iraq/Syria and Asia. He outlined the FCO’s network shift to boost our staff numbers around Asia, reflecting our important economic and security interests there. With so many troubled spots in the world at the moment, it’s vital that Britain and Australia work closely together.
In Melbourne he promoted our trade and investment interests. He visited the BAE Systems shipyard – the naval maritime sector currently offers some excellent opportunities for collaboration. He met a number of financial institutions that are big investors in the UK, to encourage them to do even more. He addressed the Chamber of Commerce and launched a new British Business Network.
He also found time to lay a wreath at the National War Memorial, and have a round table with representative of cultural institutions and creative industries, to discuss their cooperation with the UK.
Constituents sometimes wonder what their MPs are doing when they travel overseas. In my experience, we always give our FCO ministers packed programmes and they work very hard indeed. I’ve reported that back to East Devon.
