Raab refuses to deny reports of aid budget cut

LONDON: Dominic Raab has repeatedly refused to deny reports that the government plans to slash its international aid budget in this week’s Spending Review.

The Foreign Secretary told MPs to wait to hear what Chancellor Rishi Sunak has to say on the matter on Wednesday, but promised that the government’s aid budget “will remain at the absolute centre of the work we do as a force for good”.

It came as opposition parties warned it is “the wrong time” to cut the country’s current 0.7 per cent commitment to humanitarian assistance and that the government doing so would “jeopardise” the UK’s power status in the world.

There has been speculation that Sunak is to announce a temporary cut in aid spending next year to just 0.5 per cent of national income, down from the legally binding target of 0.7 per cent. The current 0.7 per cent baseline for the UK’s aid budget, pledged in the Conservative Party’s election-winning manifesto in 2019, is enshrined in law by the International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) Act.

Shadow Foreign Office minister Preet Kaur Gill said: “Our existing 0.7 per cent aid commitment sends a strong signal that the UK is a reliable partner for long-term economic, social, environmental and educational advancement across the globe, and this is cheaper than fighting wars – not my words, but those of the CBI and the former chief of defence staff, General Lord David Richards.

“Does the Secretary of State agree that rowing back on our promise to the world’s poorest people will jeopardise our soft power status ahead of a year where the UK will host the G7 and Cop26, and will he recommit to his manifesto pledge, made exactly a year ago today, to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on aid?”

Raab replied: “ODA (Official Development Assistance) and our aid budget will remain at the absolute centre of the work we do as a force for good. Of course, I shall, I’m afraid, have to wait, we’ll have to wait, for the Spending Review to hear what the Chancellor has to say on that.”

Fellow shadow Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty warned that it “would be the wrong time to cut on our 0.7 per cent commitment to humanitarian assistance” as Ethiopia is “on the brink of another tragedy”.

Doughty said: “War and famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s is seared into the memories of the British people and the world, and yet again we are on the brink of another tragedy for the people of that wonderful country.

“Hundreds of civilians hacked to death, tens of thousands of refugees, hundreds of thousands cut off from assistance, women and children caught in the violence between rebels and the Government now threatening to shell the city.

“Can the Foreign Secretary say why it has taken until today for the United Nations Security Council to meet on this? What more are we doing to secure those humanitarian corridors and access for independent human rights monitors, and does he not agree this is just another reason why this would be the wrong time to cut on our 0.7 per cent commitment to humanitarian assistance?”

Raab replied: “Can I share his horror at some of the reports of the civilian casualties. We take this incredibly seriously, both energetically and actively in the United Nations, but also let me reassure him that UK funding is already helping those in urgent need of assistance.

“In Ethiopia specifically, the UK funds the World Food Programme, the UNHCR, Unicef and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.”

Meanwhile, SNP foreign affairs spokesman Alyn Smith (Stirling) asked if Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly is “considering” his position over the matter. “I would suggest that he have a read of the SNP’s submission to the integrated review – there’s some very good ideas in there, not least to maintain development at the heart of climate mitigation and to properly fund it,” he said.

“If I was a minister of a government that stood on a manifesto in December to maintain 0.7 per cent, I would be considering my position were that to be walked back upon. Is he considering this?”

Cleverly replied: “I’m very proud of the fact that the UK is and will remain one of the most generous aid donors in the world, and we have focused relentlessly on ensuring that the work of the UK Government across all departments focuses on addressing the poorest in the world, as well as the implications of climate change.”