Join international development NGO Christian Aid for an evening in conversation with Rory Stewart, the former Secretary of State for International Development. He will be interviewed by veteran journalist and broadcaster Edward Stourton.

As the UK exits the European Union, what role should Britain play in the world, and what responsibility should it have to the world's most marginalised and vulnerable groups?

During a Q&A session, Mr Stewart will discuss this, as well as issues ranging from the climate crisis to the status of British aid and how it can best reach the world's poorest.

Audience members will have an opportunity to put questions to Mr Stewart, who is also standing as an independent candidate to be Mayor of London.

The event will include Rev Lucy Winkett, broadcaster and rector of St James's Piccadilly; and Amanda Khozi Mukwashi - CEO of Christian Aid.

About Rory Stewart OBE

Rory Stewart OBE is a former diplomat and author of The Places in Between - a book he wrote after undertaking a two-year walk across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. He subsequently served as a deputy governor for the Coalition Provisional Authority following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He later lectured at Harvard University and worked for several NGOs, including as executive chairman of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation.

In 2009, Mr Stewart joined the Conservative Party and was selected as the parliamentary candidate for Penrith and The Border. He was elected to the House of Commons the following year, and was later elected as chair of the Defence Select Committee. In 2015, he was appointed to government as minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. From 2016 to 2019, Mr Stewart served as international development minister, Africa minister and prisons minister.

In 2019, he was promoted to the cabinet as secretary of state for international development. Mr Stewart stood as a candidate for leader of the Conservative Party in the 2019 leadership contest, finishing fifth.

On 3 October 2019, Stewart announced he had resigned from the Conservative Party. He is standing as an independent candidate in the 2020 London mayoral election.

About Edward Stourton

Edward Stourton is one of Radio 4's leading presenters of news and documentaries. Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1957, he was educated at Ampleforth College and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a degree in English Literature before joining ITN as a graduate trainee.

He was a founder member of Channel 4 News, working as a scriptwriter but adding producer, duty home news editor and chief sub-editor to his duties. Edward reported from Beirut for the first time in 1983 and spent most of the next decade covering foreign news.

In 1986, he was appointed Channel 4's Washington Correspondent covering the final years of the Reagan presidency and the 1988 presidential campaign. He also presented special programmes on the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1988 Edward joined the BBC as Paris Correspondent. In 1990 he returned to ITN as diplomatic editor, and during his three years in the job he reported from Baghdad during the Gulf War, from Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo, from Moscow in the final days of the Soviet Union and from Europe throughout the negotiations leading up to the Maastricht summit.

In 1993 he returned to the BBC to the One O'Clock News, which he presented for six years. He has also presented editions of Correspondent, Assignment and Panorama, and the phone-in programme Call Ed Stourton on Radio 4. His current affairs work for Radio 4 includes the series The Violence Files, Asia Gold and Global Shakeout. Asia Gold won the Sony Gold for current affairs in 1997.

In 1997 he presented Absolute Truth, a landmark, four-part series for BBC 2 on the modern Catholic Church and wrote a book to accompany the series.

In 1999 Edward joined the team on the Today programme which he presented until September 2009. He has since joined the presenting teams on The World at One and The World This Weekend and taken over presentation of Sunday, Radio 4's main religious news and current affairs programme.

Britain’s global role in a post-Brexit world: Rory Stewart in conversation