The comments made by Alastair Campbell on 23 May 2026.
Whoever is Prime Minister in the coming months for heaven’s sake try to get David Miliband back into UK politics to be part of your team. His interview on Today programme just now a reminder of how much his voice and his brain are missed.
The comments made by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, on 21 May 2026.
It is vital we act now to save lives – outbreaks like Ebola do not stop at borders, and neither can we.
This outbreak is a stark reminder that global health threats require a global response. The UK is working hand-in-hand with partners – boosting much needed funding but also sharing our technical expertise, to contain the outbreak, protect our security, and support those most at risk.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is assessing routes by which travellers enter the UK from the affected countries and will be working with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Department for Transport, and Border Force to ensure information is available to them on Ebola symptoms and how to access healthcare if unwell. The UK has updated its travel advice and advises against all but essential travel to some parts of the DRC.
The comments made by Stephen Kinnock, the Minister of State for Care, on 20 May 2026.
Ever since I was appointed Minister of State for Care in July 2024, NHS staff have been telling me that the current fit note system isn’t working – not for patients, and not for the clinicians who sign them off.
These pilots mark the beginning of the end for that broken system, giving people personalised support to get back into work and freeing up GPs from unnecessary admin so they can focus on what they do best: caring for their patients.
This is what our 10 Year Health Plan is all about – earlier support, from the right people, in the right place.
The comments made by Pat McFadden, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 May 2026.
Fit notes are too often a dead end – a piece of paper that tells people they can’t work but does nothing to help them get better.
We’re changing that. By bringing employers, the NHS, and patients together we can help people recover faster, stay connected to their jobs, and get the economy firing on all cylinders.
That’s what these pilots are about, and that’s what this Government is committed to – fixing what is broken.
The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 20 May 2026.
We stand with the infected blood community to bear witness to the lives lost and those changed forever. As a nation, we must ensure the lessons of this scandal are never forgotten.
I pay tribute to their extraordinary courage and dignity in their long fight for truth and justice, and extend my sincere thanks to the Infected Blood Memorial Committee for the care, compassion and dedication behind this service.
The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 20 May 2026.
I’m keeping taxes down for drivers and businesses – putting money in the pockets of millions of workers and cutting costs for farmers and hauliers.
The war in Iran is pushing up fuel prices here at home but after strong growth at the beginning of the year, I am stepping in to protect people at the pump
By protecting households and businesses we are building a stronger and more secure economy for Britain. That is the right economic plan.
The comments made by Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, on 20 May 2026.
I know many are feeling the pressure of energy and fuel costs, and are worried about how the conflict in Iran will affect their finances. Because when global events drive up prices, it’s working people who feel it first.
That’s why this government is stepping in to keep fuel costs down for millions of drivers and putting money back in the pockets of working people.
The speech made by David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, on 19 May 2026.
First, let me thank the fantastic panellists that we’ve just heard speak so powerfully over the past few hours on this important issue: Shifting the Power.
Whether on the border of Sudan as Foreign Secretary, visiting Sri Lanka as Deputy Prime Minister or welcoming Global South leaders to the UK from across the world what’s clear is that the 1997 style approach to international development no longer works.
Global South partners feel the overlapping crises, the shocks and the creaking of the system the hardest.
We are living through a “Great Remaking”. In a changing international order, many powers are shaping this multipolar age, and so our status quo is not fit for purpose.
We are changing our approach. Moving from the paternalism of the past to the partnerships of the future and championing the reforms required across the system.
Making it fairer, more impactful and unblocking the finance needed to turbocharge development and climate action.
It’s fantastic to see that under my dear colleague Yvette Cooper and the wonderful Baroness Chapman this work has only grown in importance – look at us all here today. But as we’ve just heard, there is much more we must do together.
As an international community, too often we have failed in our primary task: to work in genuine partnership. Not focussed on handouts. But on shared growth.
We know that when those most greatly affected shape the solutions, decisions carry greater legitimacy, outcomes endure, and our collective impact is stronger.
As the Foreign Secretary outlined earlier, we have a responsibility to make this right, but also an interest in doing so.
As Deputy Prime Minister, I know all too well that growth, tackling the climate crisis, and the health of our citizens cannot be separated from international shocks and crises.
Because as we’ve seen all too clearly in recent years, instabilities and crises across the world have a direct impact on us here at home. From the effects of COVID-19, which continue of course to reverberate, to the floods and extreme weather that damage our towns and cities, all of it costing billions of pounds. To the impacts of global economic shocks on the cost of living. If we are to shift course, we must see a genuine shift in approach; and a genuine shift in power.
We’ve heard loud and clear over these two plenary sessions a rallying cry for a central organising principle: that countries’ and communities’ own aspirations, plans and priorities must be at the heart of development cooperation.
What are the three key things we have heard we can collectively do to turn this principle into practice?
First, we must work alongside partners as they set their own agendas, aligning our support and finance behind their aspirations for their own development.
It means coordinating behind country platforms, where countries choose them, to align support with national priorities.
It means co-creating, co-designing and co-deciding solutions as best and standard practice, where partners determine what, where and how development resources are used.
That’s why the UK wholeheartedly endorses the Call to Action to all development actors to accelerate support for locally led development, and we encourage you to join us.
Second, that we need to take a whole of society approach. From government to the private sector to philanthropy to civil society, including the most marginalised voices. To support the changes that countries and communities want to see.
This Government has always believed in a feminist approach to international development and foreign policy. Women and girls – in all their diversity – and women’s rights organisations as drivers of change and progress, essential to growth, peace and stability.
That’s why I commend the work of Yvette Cooper. With her leadership, the UK has made this a standalone foreign policy priority.
And finally, to deliver this, we must support partners in building self-sufficiency and fiscal resilience.
We need to redouble our efforts to ensure countries can mobilise their own finance, spend well, borrow responsibly and manage shocks effectively, to build sustainable economies.
Control over finances is control over sovereignty.
This means tackling illicit finance and corruption. Which I see as one of the great progressive causes of our times.
Illicit financial flows are estimated to total between 800 billion dollars and 2 trillion dollars every year, that’s around 2–5% of global GDP.
This is money that should be in the hands of citizens, ordinary people supporting their public services.
Instead, it lines the pockets of kleptocrats, their cronies and funds their luxury homes in capitals like this one, here in London.
Together we must move beyond an agenda simply focussed on transparency and end the era of impunity for those exploiting developing nations for their own ill-gotten gains.
It also means mobilising more private capital and the City of London is a hub of green finance and we want it to become a hub of global development finance too.
So we are working with senior leaders from across the investment community to address practical barriers to scaling investment in developing countries.
This, to me, exemplifies a move towards building genuine partnerships, new coalitions that deliver growth and opportunity for citizens here and abroad.
But none of this will be enough if we don’t also work together to change the global development system.
You will have heard from many leaders and those championing reform initiatives over the course of today; and it is clear there are already some key areas of momentum.
First, that we must address the injustice at the heart of the system for ensuring Global South voice, that’s representative has influence and a meaningful seat at the table.
Yvette Cooper set out earlier today how the UK is working in partnership to champion this shift across the system. Whether that’s ensuring greater voice across the debt architecture through the new Borrowers’ Platform, co-chairing the current World Bank Shareholding Review, reforming the UN Security Council to include permanent representation from the African continent, India, Germany, Brazil and Japan or ensuring the OECD DAC Reform Review keeps pace with the scale of the changes to the development partnership and finance landscape. We are proud to play our part.
Second, it is clear that institutions and actors must work better as a system, to get behind the aspirations of countries and communities.
Working together should be the starting point, systemic and not ad hoc.
That means going further and faster on essential reforms to support genuine collaboration between development banks, climate funds, and other institutions. Bringing together finance, expertise, and implementation at scale.
Third, we must prioritise and protect the parts of the system that protect us. There is no development without climate action and no climate action without development. They are two sides of the same coin.
At all levels of government, the UK remains relentlessly focused on addressing this defining global challenge. The transition to a resilient, nature positive, clean powered global economy is the growth opportunity of the 21st century.
We will not succeed in tackling the climate and nature crisis, or delivering resilient, sustainable growth, without reforming the full development and climate ecosystem.
We need a climate and nature finance architecture that works faster, smarter and more effectively. We need to mobilise more finance from all sources whilst delivering a step change in access to ensure funding reaches the poorest and most vulnerable and we need to ensure funding reaches communities on the ground and that marginalised groups are at the centre of decision making.
This is proven to deliver stronger, more effective resilience – it needs to be at the core to shifting the power.
That is why we have always supported the vision of Least Development Countries to get more finance and decision-making power flowing to locally led climate action and to communities on the front line.
Finally, that we must look ahead to the system we need for the future, and define that future together:
We as politicians, as leaders, must take greater responsibility to set out a common vision.
To re-inspire hope that we can tackle the collective challenges we face, for the betterment of my citizens and yours.
As we’ve heard today, there is much more to do on this agenda to deliver a true paradigm shift.
But we are committed, as partners, as reformers, to stay the course. What do we know?
We know that relationships grounded in old hierarchies no longer work and instead we need to base our relationships on mutual respect as equals. So how do we get there?
We know there is more to do. But when I look around this room, I see people, governments and organisations that are committed to do the work to realise our ambitions.
We are not all the same of course. We do not agree on everything. But together, we can build new coalitions which give us all a seat at the table.
We must take the discussions of this week and turn them into concrete actions. It is about restoring confidence that cooperation can deliver. This is what shifting the power means in practice; more trust, more legitimacy, more impact.
Thank you.
The comments made by Ellie Reeves, the Attorney General, on 19 May 2026.
Adam Leddra is a dangerous sexual predator. He knew his victim was only a teenager but completely disregarded her age, preying on her vulnerabilities to unleash some of the most horrific sexual abuse.
I welcome the court’s decision to increase his prison sentence and protect any more victims from harm. I want to commend the victim’s bravery for coming forward to help bring this perpetrator to justice.
The speech made by Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, in London on 19 May 2026.
Thank you very much. It is a great pleasure to be able to welcome everyone at here, in London, for the Global Partnerships Conference, and a huge pleasure, especially to be able to co-host this conference with South Africa, just as our two countries worked together last year on the replenishment of the Global Fund, helping to secure over £11 billion pounds in pledges to fight aids, tuberculosis, and malaria. And it is a pleasure, too, to co-host with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and British International Investment – the pioneering organisations that have done so much to advance the priorities that we all share.
This conference was designed to be a bit different from the normal international ministerial events that we hold. And so, I just wanted to start by acknowledging the incredible range of depth of experience, of expertise in this room and around this conference centre. From civil society, youth activists, major investors, philanthropists, tech entrepreneurs, experience of development past and ideas and interests for the future. The collective wisdom and insight that we need to harness together in the face of the most unprecedented global challenges. And I know that there’s many individuals, organisations, in this conference, who have long standing commitments to lifting people, communities, and countries out of poverty. And we’ve seen huge progress as a result of that incredible dedication. Over one and a half billion people, worldwide, lifted out of extreme poverty in recent decades. Healthy life expectancy around the world increased by over five years in just a decade. Over 100 million more children going to school, and nations benefitting from stronger job creation and growth. And as the British Foreign Secretary, I’m proud that the UK has played its part in that story of transformation, working with partner governments, and with many of you here today. And as we look forward now, as many of those same values that have underpinned that progress are enduring. Our sense of our shared humanity, that fundamental moral purpose to stand up against global disease and hunger, and to support those trapped in crises caused by conflict or climate change. And the deep distress we share, and injustice, and unfair inequalities that hold people back.
But we are here today because we know that change is needed. Because we know we need to do things differently. At a time when our world is more volatile, more contested, more unstable, than ever, and when our multilateral system is under strain. And we meet against the backdrop of the Strait of Hormuz crisis. A strait of water through which 90 ships a day used to pass but for the last three months, it’s been more like five. Heating oil for Asia, stuck in the Strait, fertilisers for Africa, stuck in the Strait, 20,000 seafarers, 800 ships just stuck in the Strait. The price effects felt on the other side of the world. The global economy is being held hostage and the global South is paying the biggest price. It’s affecting the planting season, too. The agricultural clock is ticking, and damage is already being done that will affect crop yields and food prices well into next year. As the World Food Programme has warned, some 45 million people in the global South are at risk of being pushed into acute hunger this year. The world risks sleepwalking into a global food crisis. And we cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because Iran has hijacked an international shipping lane.
And so that is why we need to act together in our response. The World Bank, the IMF, other institutions have an unparallelled ability to deliver emergency finance at a scale that’s needed to cushion the immediate impacts of the crisis. And with others, the UK has been using our voice and shareholder role to press for a step change in response, coordinated across the global financial system. We need faster coordinated action, multilateral development banks operating as a coherent whole, not just in parallel, aligned programming, quicker disbursement, specific support. to fertiliser markets, working closely with UN agencies. And with the World Food Programme, we’re already helping preposition food supplies, because we have to get ahead of the risks, not wait for the suffering to unfold before us.
But aid can’t operate alone. And that’s why Britain has led diplomatic efforts to press for the immediate reopening of the Strait, convening partners to defend the principle of the law of the sea, and why we’re preparing alongside France, a multilateral maritime mission to reassure shipping and get to trade moving when an agreement is in place, and supporting the negotiations, to fully reopen the Strait, free from restrictions and tolls, to get the global economy moving again. But the Hormuz crisis holds up a mirror to our wider challenges. This shows the importance of acting early and in partnership to mobilise support. The importance of political and policy responses to tackle the causes of crises, not just to mitigate their impacts. The importance of the rule of law. In this case, freedom of navigation, for prosperity and development, not just for order and stability. And the urgent need to address the underlying weaknesses in our economic resilience and our precarious food and energy security.
For us in the UK, that means, first and foremost, accelerating the clean energy transition. Instead of the fossil fuel roller coaster, the security independence. An economy of British owned renewable energy. Because renewable energy can’t get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz and can’t be hijacked by hostile states. This is a choice we are making for ourselves, but it is also true for many other countries as well. And so, in responding to this crisis, we should be turbocharging that shift, and it’s why I’m so pleased that we can announce today the BII’s investment, the British International Investment, additional investment, to deliver over £4.6 billion of climate investment in emerging markets to support the green transition, and to build energy security, too.
The reason that this matters is because the Strait of Hormuz is no outlier. Coming so soon after the energy price shock, the grain supply threats when Russia invaded Ukraine, or the supply chain crisis in COVID. This reflects a new era of geopolitics and geoeconomics, an era of global great power competition and global volatility, but also concurrent crises, from conflict, climate, from communicable disease. Where our interconnected world that has helped lift nations out of poverty and drive growth is turned against us to become a source of great vulnerability. At a time when violent conflict is on the rise around the world and greater than any time since the Second World War. And we’ve seen new levels and patterns of displacement and migration, tied also often to climate change as extreme weather and record temperatures destroy livelihoods. And also the new uncertainties from the pace of technological change. As AI, frontier technologies offer profound potential to give us new solutions around healthcare, around development, around economic growth. But also real risks of compounding global injustice and insecurity unless we respond. And, of course, a multilateral system in need of reform. At a time when development budgets in many donor countries, including here in the UK, are under financial strain or facing reductions.
So, in the face of these challenges, bold new approaches are needed, and we need to be honest that as well as keeping up with changing times, we need to address some of the deficiencies in some of the traditional ways we’ve done development in the past. The external blueprints, the paternalism, the policies that increased dependency rather than building resilience, and the reflex to act for others, rather than getting firmly behind local needs and priorities. So, as part of the UK’s response, we’ve held honest exchanges with partners about what we should do differently. And heard clearly the need and the demand for greater voice and agencies, for countries and communities to shape decisions that affect them, including global institutions and the global financial system.
As Mia Motley, the farsighted Prime Minister of Barbados has put it, seats at the table of decision making, where we can be seen, heard, become active agents in our own cause and lead our own development. And that lies behind the shifts that my friend and fellow minister, Baroness Jenny Chapman, has been leading in our UK development approach, as she will set out to you earlier this morning. Moving from donor to investor, from grants to expertise, putting partnership, and the focus on local needs at the centre of what we do, and putting those shifts hardwired into this conference today and tomorrow. Because the framing is about partnerships. Collective action on common challenges, on mutual respect, learning, and accountability. And a joint document that is not about traditional aid pledges, but about focussing on mobilising finance technology and new coalitions. And I want to pay tribute to Jenny and the FCDO team for bringing this event together.
So let me just then highlight three areas of what this looks like. On development finance, shifting the centre of gravity from traditional measures around public funding towards mobilising much wider investments and different forms of capital investment and support. For example, developing local capital markets to attract and allocate finance effectively, as we’ve done in Ethiopia, through support to their first public stock exchange, so that Ethiopian companies can tap into new funding. With UK Insurance sector, pioneering new private partnerships, that can help countries respond more quickly and effectively to natural disasters. And working through the most impactful bits of the multilateral system, such as the World Bank’s International Development Association, where every pound we invest unlocks four pounds of additional finance. Whilst backing calls for the reforms of the global financial system, including by tackling unsustainable debt, through expanding the common framework, and making it meet countries’ needs more quickly. We’re backing through Africa’s institutions to raise far more funding at scale. With our 650-million-pound contribution to the African development fund, helping leverage in up to 1.6 billion in grants and concessional loans, including issuing bonds on the London Stock Exchange for the first time. And moving from into also providing expertise, such as the tax advice that has helped Ghana, generate, an additional 100 million in revenue to invest in its own education and health priorities, far more than a traditional UK aid programme could have provided.
The second shift is to make sure we focus. our humanitarian and grant aid on the countries and the communities that need support most. Conflict is now one of the biggest drivers of extreme poverty across the world. Already over half of extreme poverty is concentrated in conflict affected, fragile states. And so, alongside our aid allocations to areas like Sudan and Lebanon, Palestine, were prioritising conflict resolution in each of those areas too. A focus that also supports our interest because conflicts that rage unresolved radiate instability across regions and continents. And it’s in our collective interest to support global health too. When we see the Ebola outbreak spread in and around the DRC, flagged by the WHO as being of clear international concern. And we also need a reset of the whole humanitarian system, as proposed, by UN Humanitarian Chief, Tom Fletcher, and organisations like the International Rescue Committee, rigorous prioritisation and shifting the power and resources to local partners that really understand the local contexts and needs. And UN reform, too, to help the UN play its indispensable role, to be more efficient, or effective and coherent, refocused on the core priorities and results in line with the UN 80 reform initiative.
But finally, I want to mention a further focus. that is about our values and also our shared interests. Because amidst the plethora of global emergencies, we can risk neglecting one that blights the safety and prosperity, equality, and freedom of half the world, including here in the UK. And that’s why the UK government has made tackling violence against women and girls a national mission. setting an unprecedented mission, a push to harm violence against women and girls in the UK in a decade. But we believe it also needs to be a global focus. Because at a time when one in every three women and girls, worldwide, will experience physical or sexual violence, these are not simply the statistics, but life scarred and generations that can bear those scars. And having heard firsthand on the Sudan-Chad border earlier this year, in Adre, some of the most harrowing stories of rape and sexual violence. We know that that kind of violence can pass through and scar whole generations and communities for years to come. And so tomorrow, here at this conference, we will say more about our upcoming international campaign, and the new coalition we seek to build involving multiple countries here at this conference.
So, in closing, let me thank you for being here and for all the discussions and the conversations about this event. This part of London is no stranger to being the basis for international cooperation. We’re holding this conference just a couple of miles from Greenwich’s Royal Observatory, from which the world agreed how to measure time. And that agreement, to create a single primary meridian, unlocked cooperation on trade or commerce, on global interactions. And here today, in a different time, on different terms, as an international community, with states, company, civil society, all represented, we’re discussing, again, the cooperation on the critical issues that will shape the coming decades, signing our jointly endorsed, Global Partnerships Compact. And I hope this shared endeavour that will carry us forward, whether it’s at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, the multilateral events, or into the UK’s G20 presidency next year. Let me finish where I started, with the potential interest of all of those here, from so many different countries and backgrounds, to bring those partnerships across the world and across our communities together. For a world free from poverty, on a liveable planet, because we know it’s the partnerships that we build across the world, that make each and every one of us stronger at home.
Thank you very much.