Mcconnell: UK Government like ‘a playground bully’ in cutting aid budget

JACK Mcconnell has become the latest senior politician to condemn the UK Government’s “shameful” move to cut the overseas aid budget next year by £5 billion, accusing it of behaving “like the worst kind of playground bully” by picking on the poor and vulnerable.

The condemnation from the former First Minister follows that of David Cameron, the ex-prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister, and Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader.

The rising opposition to the budget cut is paving the way for a possible Commons defeat for the UK Government when MPS vote on the issue due in January. The decision to cut the aid budget breaks a Conservatives’ election manifesto pledge.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Mcconnell of Glenscorrodale expressed disappointment at the resignation of Baroness Sugg, the “excellent” Foreign Office Minister, who left her Government role following the announcement to cut overseas aid from 0.7 per cent a year to 0.5%. She branded the decision “fundamentally wrong”.

The Labour peer told the Upper House of his “enormous sense of pride” at Gleneagles in 2005 as the UK used its leadership of the G8 summit to unite the world and ensure there were increased and accelerated commitments from G8 leaders and others to help those living in extreme poverty.

“Is it not shameful,” he asked, “in 2021, the Government will use the months ahead of the G7 summit in the UK to do the exact opposite and, like the worst kind of playground bully, after a year in which a pandemic has reminded us of the interdependence of our world, to pick on the most vulnerable and break a promise to the poor?”

Responding for the Government, Lord True, the Cabinet Office Minister, insisted: “The

Government is committed to supporting international development and helping the world’s poorest people.”

He pointed out, despite the Government’s decision, the UK would remain the second highest donor in the G7, contributing more than France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the US.

Earlier, Rishi Sunak used a round of broadcast interviews to claim Britain was not turning its back on the world’s poorest people and the Government could reverse the cut when economic conditions allowed.

The Chancellor admitted it was a “difficult decision” to slash the budget but said the UK was in the midst of an “economic emergency”.

In the Commons, Dominic Raab denied the UK Government was “salami slicing” all parts of the UK’S overseas aid spending. In a statement, he expressed “regret” at the decision but said it was necessary as “every penny of public spending will rightly come under intense scrutiny”.

But Tory colleague, Andrew Mitchell, former Overseas Aid Secretary, said his party did “not need to break” its 0.7% spending promise, warning it would “drive a horse and cart” through many of the Government’s aid plans.