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Foreign Affairs

Foreign affairs is where Britain decides what kind of power it wants to be in the world. It covers diplomacy and alliances, the response to wars and crises, sanctions, trade relationships, international development and the management of the relationship with the United States and Europe. Much of it happens out of public view and is shaped by events the government cannot control, but the choices made about which conflicts to join, which partners to trust and which agreements to sign have consequences that reach back to security, the economy and the country’s standing for years afterwards.

The department responsible

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Manages Britain's relationships with every country on Earth — and remembers fondly the years when most of those relationships ran themselves.

MPs scrutinising this most

By written questions tabled to the department this Parliament.

1. Rt Hon Wendy Morton Conservative8142. Rt Hon Priti Patel Conservative4193. Andrew Rosindell Reform UK4194. Jim Shannon Democratic Unionist Party2175. Adam Jogee Labour180

Recent Commons votes

Draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025
2 Jul 2025
Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 756) (Motion to annul)
30 Sept 2020
Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill: Report Stage, Amendment 18
30 Jan 2019
Emergency debate: Parliamentary approval of military action overseas
17 Apr 2018
Commonwealth Development Corporation Bill: Report Stage Amdt 3
10 Jan 2017

Bills and Acts

Occupied Palestinian Territory (Trade with Israeli Settlements) Bill
Ponds (Permitted Development) Bill
Gaza (Independent Public Inquiry) Bill
UK–USA Trade Agreements (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Bill
Trade Agreements (Exclusion of National Health Services) Bill
1st reading
Russian Frozen Assets (Seizure and Aid to Ukraine) Bill
Planning and Development (Community Infrastructure) Bill
Parliamentary Scrutiny of Trade Agreements Bill

Investigations

Hand Over £800 Million Or Lose £60 Billion

Trump is threatening a 100 percent tariff on every UK good sold to America unless Britain scraps a digital tax worth a fraction of the trade at stake. The tax will go. The real lesson is that a deal with this White House lasts exactly as long as it suits him.