CABINET AT WAR ON AID
Minister defends her £13bn budget as colleagues plot to dilute spending guarantee
The Cabinet row over Britain’s controversial foreign aid target intensfied last night after International Development Secretary Priti Patel launched an extraordinary defence of her department’s spending.
She issued a 1,700-word statement to Parliament setting out her department’s achievements, while making no mention of the controversy surrounding her £13.3billion budget.
Miss Patel, who once called for the Department for International Development to be scrapped, said Britain should not ‘compromise our commitment to being a global leader in international development’. Aid was helping stabilise some of the poorest and most fragile countries, she said, adding: ‘When we invest in stability, jobs and livelihoods, and sound governance, we address the root causes of problems that affect us here in the UK. It is not in our national interest to simply sit on our hands and wait until these problems reach breaking point or find their way to our doorstep.’
A source at DfID denied last night that Miss Patel’s statement was designed to head off possible cuts. But the move came amid a growing Cabinet row over whether to repeat David Cameron’s controversial manifesto pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on foreign aid.
Several ministers, including Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, are pushing for part of the aid budget to be reallocated to their departments.
Others, including International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, believe the target should be scrapped. Theresa May refused to say, when pressed in the Commons on Wednesday, whether the pledge will be repeated in her manifesto.
Tory sources suggest the target is unlikely to be axed altogether. But a Government insider confirmed last night that ministers are examining whether to abandon the international definition on aid to allow the cash to be spent on a wider range of activities, including some that currently come from the defence budget.
‘There is an argument that some of the activities carried out by troops in fragile states should count as aid,’ the source said.
Mr Cameron’s former policy chief Camilla Cavendish said aid spending was ‘too high’ and it was inevitable some would be lost to corruption and waste.
Baroness Cavendish, a former aid worker, told BBC2’s Newsnight: ‘It’s about what you achieve, it’s not about a set amount of money. If you had a bit more flexibility you would be able to operate in a different way, for example, have the military deliver humanitarian assistance.’
Other options being considered include rolling the aid target and 2 per cent defence spending target into a single pledge to spend 3 per cent of national income on the ‘security agenda’.
There are also proposals to allow the 0.7 per cent target to be measured over five years, rather than meet it each year.
Yesterday Miss Patel spelled out the positive aspects of aid in extraordinary detail, telling MPs she had conducted a ‘line-by-line review’ of every project to root out waste. Savings would be ‘recycled to fund better-value programmes aligned to our priorities.’
The department had identified £500million in efficiency savings in the coming years – more than the £400million demanded by Chancellor Philip hammond.
The statement made no mention of the numerous cases of fraud and waste exposed in the aid spending in recent years.
The international development budget has soared by 57 per cent from £ 8.45billion in 2010 to £13.3billion last year – while most other departments have seen their budgets slashed. But any move to water down or scrap the target will require a change in the law passed by the Coalition.
‘Address root cause of problems’ ‘A bit more flexibility’