The UK should follow the USA’s lead if it opts to pull out of the United Nations, Lichfield and Burntwood’s MP has claimed.
American president Donald Trump has halted funding for the World Health Organisation in protest at what he claims was mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is the latest spat between the USA and the UN and its associated agencies.
Michael Fabricant has now said the UK needs to be prepared to follow the US lead if the situation escalates.
In an article written for ConservativeHome, he said:
“With Donald Trump at the helm, there is now a possibility that the US could leave the United Nations entirely.
“If this were to happen, and remember the US is by far the UN’s biggest funder, where would that leave the UK?
“In that eventuality, I believe we would have to make it clear to the UN that if radical reform is not forthcoming, we would follow the Americans out of the door.
“At present, there is nothing to indicate that the US plans to leave the UN any time soon, and the UK’s priority should absolutely be to try and reform the organisation from within, particularly as we hold one of the five permanent seats on the Security Council.
“But where have we heard ‘we can better change it from within’ before?
Michael Fabricant MP
“The UN repeatedly fails to live up to the values and standards it was set up to defend”
Mr Fabricant said it was right that questions were being asked about the UN’s record in recent times after the American President branded it as “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time”.
“The simple fact is that despite its lofty goals, the UN repeatedly fails to live up to the values and standards it was set up to defend.
“Not only did the UN shamelessly fail to stop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, or indeed more recently the bloodbath in Syria, it frequently cannot even bring its own institutions to condemn the governments that carry out such atrocities.
“The so-called UN Human Rights Council is a perfect example of this moral myopia.
“Among the current members elected to its council are serial human rights abusers such as Eritrea and Bahrain, while other recent members include China, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
“Like many other UN bodies, the HRC is also biased against Israel to the point of absurdity.”
Michael Fabricant MP
“Nothing more than a fig leaf for the world’s dictatorships”
Were the US to depart the UN, it would see China become the biggest contributor of funding to the group.
And Mr Fabricant believes it would tip the balance for many democratic nations.
“The Security Council, which is weak and ineffective at best, would tilt even more towards the dictatorships of Russia and China.
“If the UN still were to prove itself incapable of reform even after the Americans have left, a British exit could spark an exodus of similar like-minded liberal democracies, leaving the UN as nothing more than a fig leaf for the world’s dictatorships.
“If there’s one thing these past few years of politics have taught us, it’s that nothing, no matter how unprecedented, can be ruled out.”
Michael Fabricant MP
