Charities in legal threat over aid cut
BORIS Johnson faces a legal challenge over his cut to the foreign aid budget after he suggested he will avoid putting it to a vote in the Commons.
Charities are preparing to take the Government to court to block the planned £4billion reduction in overseas spending.
Ministers had announced they would change the law to lower the spending target on international development from 0.7 per cent of national income to 0.5 per cent.
This would have allowed handouts to be slashed to around £10billion – and kept at a lower level for years.
But the Daily Mail last week revealed the budget may now only be reduced for one year as ministers seek to avoid the need for new legislation because of fears they will lose votes in Parliament.
In the Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson signalled that he would use a loophole in the existing legislation that allows the target to be missed for reasons including the economic situation without changing the law.
The Prime Minister told MPs it was ‘right’ there is no need to amend legislation as the cut is temporary.
But former Tory international development secretary Andrew Mitchell called on Mr Johnson to hold a vote on the reduction.
In the Government’s foreign policy review, published yesterday, Mr Johnson committed to returning to the 0.7 per cent target ‘when the fiscal situation allows’, but he avoided setting a time-frame.
Stephanie Draper, of Bond UK, which represents British international development charities, said: ‘The aid budget is not a tap that the Government can turn on and off when it likes without any consequence. Cutting aid means cutting programmes that provide critical support... lives will be lost and any development gains reversed.’ She warned of ‘irrecoverable damage’.