Aid memoire PM’S warning
David Cameron and Tony Blair yesterday issued a joint warning to Boris Johnson not to cut the £15 billion foreign aid budget
DAVID CAMERON and Tony Blair have told Boris Johnson he risks undermining his presidency of the G7 next year if he cuts foreign aid spending.
In a joint statement to The Daily Telegraph, the former prime ministers said a proposed cut in the £15 billion international development budget to pay for coronavirus would jeopardise Britain’s “soft power” status on the global stage.
Mr Blair made the pledge to meet the UN target of 0.7 per cent of income at the Gleneagles summit in 2005. It was met under Mr Cameron in 2013, and enshrined into law in 2015. But on Wednesday, No 10 refused to rule out reducing the commitment to 0.5 per cent of income as the cost of the Covid19 crisis continued to spiral.
The former prime ministers warned that any cut in funding risked alienating US president-elect Joe Biden ahead of the 2021 G7 summit, due to be held at an as yet undisclosed UK location. Mr
Cameron said: “Abandoning the 0.7 target for aid would be a moral, strategic and political mistake. Moral, because we should be keeping our promises to the world’s poorest. A strategic error, because we would be signalling retreat from one of the UK’S vital acts of global leadership. And a political mistake because the UK is about to chair the G7 and important climate change negotiations. I hope the PM will stick to his clear manifesto promise, maintain UK leadership and save lives.”
Mr Blair said: “Over the past 20 years, the British commitment to 0.7 per cent has helped cut deaths from malaria, HIV and others on the continent of Africa, measured literally in millions; raised life expectancy dramatically; educated better many millions more children; created stability and assisted development which has seen investment and living standards rise to levels not experienced before.
“This has been a great British soft power achievement. It’s enlightened self-interest. Neither the challenge of climate or Covid-19 can be met without Africa. Nor can those of extremism and uncontrolled immigration. To change it is a profound strategic mistake.”
General Lord David Richards, former chief of defence staff, also criticised the move, saying: “It’s in the UK’S interests to be as generous as possible, and it’s much cheaper than fighting wars.”
Andrew Mitchell, a former international development secretary, said: “This decision will lead to tens of thousands of preventable deaths, perhaps as many as 100,000, mainly children, who would have been saved by UK aid.”
The Government has already slashed £2.9 billion off the international development budget for the remainder of this year so as to avoid overshooting the 0.7 per cent target.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, will set out the state of the nation’s finances at the comprehensive spending review on Wednesday, which is expected to contain the largest downgrade in economic performance and public finances since the Second World War.