Ashfield MP says more trade and less aid is the way forward for Britain

Although it was not a manifesto commitment it is something I wholeheartedly support in principle.

As Britain seems to be securing more major trade deals on a weekly basis, the latest being a continuation agreement with Canada, I firmly believe that now the UK is not shackled to the EU, it can do more trade with some of the poorest countries around the world which will help their economies and Britain’s.

It is better to trade with countries rather than keep handing out cash and this is proven by the fact that, decades on, the UK is still sending cash to the same places.

The way out of poverty is to increase opportunity by the way of free trade deals which Britain is now securing all around the world.

Look at Africa, for example, which Britain currently gives around £2 billion to in annual aid, but the trade budget for the entire continent is around £350 million.

Surely it is better to increase trade between countries to provide a constant stream of revenue for all sides?

Sounds simple, I certainly think it is.

I was pleased to see my good friend Ben Bradley MP open the International Men’s Day debate in Parliament last week.

We seem to forget that men are more likely to drop out of school, be homeless, be in jail, suffer with addiction and are far less likely to access higher education.

Yet historically men have been useful to serve their country in wars, go down the pits, go to sea and do all the other dangerous horrible jobs that have needed doing throughout time.

So, with all the old dangerous jobs in decline or vanished completely there is obviously going to be a vacuum.

So we should talk about men who have suffered in the same way we should talk about women who have been treated unfairly and paid less for doing the same jobs as men.

I want to live in a society where we are comfortable speaking about everyone and not just groups of people to tick a certain box.

The culture war continues and this week, along with many Tory MP’s I have written to the Prime Minister to ask him to back our fightback against the politically correct ‘woke agenda’ of institutions including the National Trust and the BBC who seem intent on raking up our history to attack our traditions and values.

The latest round of nonsense comes from the National Maritime Museum’ for ‘re-evaluating Lord Nelson’s heroic status’.

Most people in our country are fiercely patriotic and whilst we can all admit there are parts of our history that we are not proud of it, is nevertheless our history and we should not be ashamed of who we are and where we have come from.

I love my country, its history, its traditions and its values and quite frankly if people in high places do not like this great country of ours then they can feel free to go and live somewhere else.

I am stopping here.

Lee Anderson is MP for Ashfield.