Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the UK’s international and diplomatic relations.

Mr Philip Hammond

The decision in the forthcoming referendum is one for the British people alone to make. In the nearly 2 years I have been Foreign Secretary, I have visited over 70 different countries in 6 continents – and in no single one of them have I been told that Britain’s influence would be greater if it were not a member of the EU. On the contrary whether in China, in the USA, in Australia, in Nigeria, Britain is seen as more influential because of its membership of the EU. We get two bites of the cherry: Britain’s is a strong and influential voice in its own right; but it is also the voice of a leading Member State of the world’s largest economic block. Membership of the EU does not diminish Britain’s influence; it enhances it – and I speak from personal experience.