The International Development Committee today released its report into the UK’s international investment body, British International Investment (BII). It includes some strange recommendations.

The committee, which is led by Labour MP Sarah Champion and includes Corbynites Kate Osamor and Navendu Mishra, criticised the board of the BII for failing to devote enough resources to “gender lens investing”. The report included a separate section criticising the BII for its investments in attractive low-tax jurisdictions, which result “significant lost revenue for countries in the ‘Global South’.” And more cash for actual production…

Only one of the BII’s three priorities is to actually make smart investments and create jobs, the other two being climate change and “inclusive development”. What more do the politicians want?

The report complained that in 2021, “BII invested in just 15 fragile and conflict-affected states, with only Nigeria receiving more than one per cent of BII’s total investment during that year”. If only war-torn countries had more startups…

It criticised that BII investments still had exposure to fossil fuels, in conflict with the government’s climate goals, and demanded that the BII elaborate an exit plan for those investments. The BII retorted that to do so would be to lose taxpayers’ money.

The committee goes so far as to propose that the FCDO abandons its “arm’s length” approach and takes more control over the BII board to bring in crucial “public sector representation”. Those brilliant investors…