Thank you, Chair, Ajay, and everyone at the Bank.

I have set out the UK’s priorities for the Bank in my written statement – including conflict, climate change, raising private capital and creating jobs. Having a real impact on these is essential for our credibility.

But today I want to focus on another issue vital to this institution’s legitimacy: its governance. Twenty four low-income countries – with just 1.4% of shareholding. The 6 largest shareholders – with 40%.

If this Bank were a country, it would be the most unequal in the world. That is not right, and not sound. The world is changing – the population of sub-Saharan Africa set to double over the next 25 years.

Yet our governance still reflects the middle of the last century, threatening to keep us stuck in the past – while t

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