International Agreements Committee
12 October 2026
Speaker dots
- Speakers in the chapter
- Colour: political group
- Grey: no group
Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.
Contents updated on 12 Oct 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Official source
Offset
Transcript offset
0s
Text size
Export
Live capture
Versions of this video
Transcripts may differ slightly from one version to another.
Committee Actual start House of Lords
18:59 - 20:11
Speaker 1
Well, good afternoon everyone and welcome back from recess. I'm extremely pleased we managed to accommodate the diary of Sir Andrew Mitchell and having our meeting on a Monday. I'm very grateful to colleagues who were able to join us today.
We are, as you know, undertaking public evidence session and a general inquiry into our decision as a country to join the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. And so we thought, well, we were fortunate enough to be able to know the individual who decided we should leave UNIDO in the first place. We've had one full evidence session already. I think we heard from the department, the FCDO and other witnesses. But Sir Andrew, thank you very much for being with us.
We couldn't be more fortunate to have you explain to us why we left in I think 2010. Sorry, 2000, the decision was taken in 2010, we eventually left in 2012. And also your views on us rejoining would be very helpful too. And then we'll have questions from the rest of my colleagues, but that's a good place to kick off and appreciate you coming to speak to us.
20:11 - 20:49
Speaker 2
Well thank you, thank you very much my Lord. And I'm obviously both honored and privileged to be invited to come and give you this evidence, which I do with great pleasure. I'd like to give you a slightly lengthy answer if that's all right on why we left. And when we came into government in 2010, international development had the very strong support of not only the Prime Minister, but also the opposition parties. I've always been very keen to make it clear that it was a British policy, not a Labour or Conservative one.
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.