Aid budget to be cut by £2bn as economic downturn bites

THE UK’S aid budget is to be slashed by more than £2billion as a result of the coronavirus downturn, Anne-marie Trevelyan, the International Development Secretary, has confirmed.

The UK has legally committed to spending 0.7 per cent of national income (GNI) on aid, but if the economy is smaller, then the total spend will also be smaller.

The economic downturn has forced the Government to conduct a “mammoth” review of the projects it funds in developing countries, with cuts and pauses due to come into effect before the end of the year, Ms Trevelyan told MPS. She said the drop in national income as a result of Covid-19 meant more than £2 billion needed to be stripped out of the aid budget.

She told the Commons international development committee that the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, has been signing off on the budget review in his role as First Secretary of State.

Mr Raab is due to lead on overseas development spending when the Department for International Development (Dfid) is merged with the Foreign Office in September.

Ms Trevelyan said: “Because of the drop in GNI, we have had to have what has been a fairly mammoth review of all our programmes and to assess, working along with the Treasury and other spending departments, where our priorities lie.”

The decision on which programmes will be affected is likely to be published in the “next few weeks”, she added.

She said there would be a “few cases” where projects would be cut, but said: “It is mostly delay or changing the nature of delivery in the short-term.”

The Secretary of State, who will lose her ministerial job in the merger, denied that bringing together the Foreign Office with Dfid was an attempt to save money. The two departments will be joined under the combined banner of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the autumn.

“We’re not aiming to make great savings,” said Ms Trevelyan.

“What we’re trying to create is a new, and much more impactful, single global affairs organisation for the UK to be outward-facing.”