Rishi Sunak today announced he is slashing the UK’s foreign aid budget as he put the Government on a collision course with furious Tory MPs and charity bosses.
The Chancellor said the current legal commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product on overseas aid was ‘difficult to justify’ during the coronavirus crisis as the Government borrows billions of pounds to keep the UK afloat.
He said the current ‘domestic fiscal emergency’ means the Government has to make ‘tough choices’ as he revealed the commitment will be reduced to 0.5 per cent of GDP.
However, he insisted the ‘intention is to return to 0.7 per cent when the fiscal situation allows’.
Mr Sunak’s decision to press ahead with the move sparked an immediate political firestorm while charities slammed the decision as ‘cruel’ and said it would result in ‘tens of thousands of otherwise preventable deaths’.
Charity chiefs accused the Chancellor of ‘hasty, short-term politics’ and warned the cut to aid ‘could not have come at a worse time’.
The Government is likely to face a considerable Conservative rebellion on the issue with many backbenchers adamant the aid budget must not be reduced.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced he is slashing the UK’s foreign aid budget in a move which was immediately condemned by charity bosses
The Conservative Party promised in its 2019 general election manifesto to stick with the 0.7 per cent aid promise.
The Tories pledged: ‘We will proudly maintain our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI [gross national income] on development, and do more to help countries receiving aid become self-sufficient.’
But Mr Sunak used today’s Spending Review to announce the aid budget will be temporarily reduced from next year.
Speaking in the House of Commons, he said: ‘This country has always and will always be open and outward looking, leading in solving the world’s toughest problems.
‘But during a domestic fiscal emergency when we need to prioritise our limited resources on jobs and public services, sticking rigidly to spending 0.7 per cent of our national income on overseas aid is difficult to justify to the British people, especially when we are seeing the highest peacetime levels of borrowing on record.
‘I have listened with great respect to those who have argued passionately to retain this target.
‘But at a time of unprecedented crisis, government must make tough choices.
‘I want to reassure the House that we will continue to protect the world’s poorest, spending the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of our national income on overseas aid in 2021, allocating £10billion at this Spending Review and our intention is to return to 0.7 per cent when the fiscal situation allows.
‘Based on the latest OECD data the UK would remain the second highest aid donor in the G7, higher than France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the United States and 0.5 per cent is also considerably more than the 29 countries on the OECD’s development assistance committee who average just 0.38 per cent.’
The decision to reduce overseas aid spending prompted immediate condemnation from prominent charities.
Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB chief executive, said: ‘Cutting the UK’s lifeline to the world’s poorest communities in the midst of a global pandemic will lead to tens of thousands of otherwise preventable deaths.
‘At a time when hundreds of millions of people are hungry and decades of progress against poverty is under threat, today’s decision is a false economy which diverts money for clean water and medicines to pay for bombs and bullets.
‘The fact the government has taken this decision before its own long-awaited Integrated Review is complete shows that this is hasty short-term politics not sensible long-term strategy.’
Nigel Harris, Tearfund CEO, echoed a similar sentiment and said: ‘As the world struggles to recover from Covid-19, it is more essential than ever that the UK maintains its historic commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of national income supporting the poorest people on our planet.
‘While it’s right the Chancellor addresses the needs of people in the UK, we must not forget our global community.
‘People living in poverty are already pushed to the brink of survival everyday, this decision by the UK government is a cruel, badly calculated decision and could not have come at a worse time.
Sir John Major was one of a number of political grandees who had urged the Government not to cut foreign aid spending
‘Cutting the aid budget will have dire consequences for many of the people Tearfund works alongside who are suffering the twin horrors of Covid-19 and climate change.’
Many Conservative MPs are vehemently opposed the move, especially because it comes at a time when developing countries are struggling because of the pandemic.
Former prime ministers Sir John Major, David Cameron and Tony Blair, as well as former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, had all spoken out against a cut.
Sir John had said: ‘Cutting our overseas aid is morally wrong and politically unwise. It breaks our word and damages our soft power.
‘Above all, it will hurt many of the poorest people in the world. I cannot and do not support it.’
Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai had called on the Government not to reduce the overseas aid budget while fellow Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said in a letter to Boris Johnson a reduction in the aid budget would be ‘immoral and dangerous’.