MP STANDS AGAINST FOREIGN AID CUTS
Karen Bradley, the lone voice among Staffordshire MPS to vote against cuts to foreign aid, says that the decision will lead to serious ramifications in developing countries, as Kathie Mcinnes reports
THE Prime Minister survived a Tory revolt over foreign aid cuts despite a North Staffordshire MP joining 23 other party rebels.
Karen Bradley, who represents the Staffordshire Moorlands, was among several former Conservative cabinet ministers to vote against the Government last Tuesday.
Others included Boris Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, who said the cuts meant the Government ‘turns its back on the poorest.’
The rebels were calling for aid spending to be restored to 0.7 per cent of gross national income from January 2022, after nearly £4billion was slashed from the budget this year on the back of the pandemic.
But MPS voted by a majority of 35 to back the reduced level of aid funding and a new test which critics have warned could mean spending never returns to the 0.7 per cent target.
Opening the debate in Parliament, Mr Johnson said: “We all believe in the principle that aid can transform lives.”
And he told MPS the Government’s motion would provide ‘an affordable path’ to restoring aid spending to its previous level, while also being able to invest in the NHS, schools and the police.
The funding will be fully restored if the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) believes the UK is not borrowing to finance day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling.
But campaigners say these tests would only have been met once in the last 20 years, so effectively peg future aid spending at 0.5 per cent of national income.
Mrs Bradley, who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2019, was the only Conservative MP across North Staffordshire and South Cheshire to vote against the Government.
Speaking to the Post× about the issue last month, she said: “If there is one thing that the last 18 months have shown us, it is that we cannot isolate ourselves from things that happen overseas.
“I want the UK to use our position as host of the G7 and COP26 to encourage others to help to support our aims, such as ensuring 12 years of education for girls, stopping the horrific trade in human beings that is modern slavery and ensuring that we vaccinate those in developing countries against Covid-19 and other devastating diseases. Meeting the 0.7 per cent Millennium Development Goal is just a small part of that work.
“Failing to make our contribution will lead to people dying when they do not need to. If we can do something to prevent this, we really should.”
All three Stoke-on-trent MPS, Jonathan Gullis, Jo Gideo and Jack Brereton, voted for the foreign aid cut, as did Newcastle-under-lyme MP Aaron Bell, Stone’s Bill Cash, Stafford’s Theo Clarke and the five MPS in south Staffordshire.
But furious ex-pm Mrs May, who defied the Tory whip for the first time in 24 years, said the government had “broken its promise” to the world’s poor.
She added: “This isn’t about palaces for dictators and vanity projects.
“It’s about what cuts to funding mean – that fewer girls will be educated, more boys and girls will become slaves, more children will go hungry and more of the poorest people in the world will die.”
Former PM David Cameron tweeted: “Sorry and saddened that efforts to #Keepourpromise to the world’s poorest did not succeed.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer voted against the motion, saying: “Let’s be clear what these cuts would mean – a million girls losing out on school, nearly three million women and children going without life-saving nutrition, 5.6 million children left unvaccinated, an estimated 100,000 deaths worldwide.”
The vote has also been met with a furious reaction from aid organisations.
Oxfam GB chief executive Danny Sriskandarajah said it was a ‘disaster for the world’s poorest people’ and the Government ‘is putting politics above the lives of world’s most vulnerable communities.’
Romilly Greenhill, UK director of the anti-poverty One Campaign, added: “It’s akin to cutting the RAF during the Battle of Britain.”