Welby denounces ‘shameful’ aid cut
Minister quits over broken manifesto pledge as Sunak reduces overseas spending and risks Commons revolt
A £4 BILLION cut to foreign aid spending to help pay for the cost of coronavirus was yesterday denounced as “shameful and wrong” by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a minister also quit in protest.
The Most Rev Justin Welby claimed that Rishi Sunak’s decision to reduce the international development target from 0.7 per cent of gross national income to 0.5 per cent had been made worse by the fact there was no “set date for restoration”.
He added that the cut broke “numerous Government promises and its manifesto” and implored MPS to “reject it for the good of the poorest, and the UK’S own reputation and interest”.
His intervention came as Baroness Sugg, a Foreign Office minister, resigned over what she claimed was a “fundamentally wrong” decision that would lower Britain’s global standing.
She previously served as Number 10’s director of operations under David Cameron, who last night claimed that Boris Johnson was “breaking a promise to the poorest people and countries in the world”.
They were joined by a number of senior Conservative MPS, who warned it risked harming Britain’s global standing and relations with Joe Biden, the US president-elect.
It came after Mr Sunak confirmed that spending on aid would fall to £10 billion next year, arguing that maintaining the target was “difficult to justify to the British people” during a “domestic fiscal emergency”.
Defending the decision to break a Conservative manifesto commitment, he added that Britain would remain the second highest overseas aid donor in the G7. However, Mr Sunak refused to say whether the target would be reinstated, stating only that the “intention” was to return to 0.7 per cent “when the fiscal situation allows”.
The Foreign Office will now be required to bring forward legislation, setting Mr Sunak on a collision course with dozens of moderate Tory MPS who have threatened to vote with Labour to block the cut.
Damian Green, the chairman of Conservatives’ One Nation Caucus, told The Daily Telegraph that ministers would have “s evere problems” if t hey
‘It will diminish our power to influence other nations to do what is right’
attempted to force the budget cut through Parliament.
Last night, a poll of 1,002 people by Savanta Comres found that 61 per cent of respondents backed the cut to foreign aid, with just 13 per cent opposed.
Tendering her resignation yesterday afternoon, Lady Sugg warned Mr Johnson it risked undermining his efforts to “promote a Global Britain and will diminish our power to influence other nations to do what is right”. “I believe it is fundamentally wrong to abandon our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on development,” she added.
Echoing her comments, Mr Cameron said: “That 0.7 per cent commitment really says something about Britain, saying that we were going to spend that money helping the poorest people.
“It is possible for us to maintain it even during difficult times but the Government has chosen not to.”
Malala Yousafzai, the women’s rights campaigner, said she was “deeply disappointed” and that a “generation of girls are leaning on that support”.
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the Commons defence committee, said the cut was a “grave mistake” and that cutting aid programmes would effectively “gift” influence to Britain’s enemies.