RISHI Sunak has confirmed foreign aid will be slashed to 0.5 per cent of GDP next year to help pay for the Covid crisis – but has promised it will rise again in future.
The Chancellor said he had listened with “great respect” to people who have argued against the cut – including 5 former PMs – but said the “tough choices” need to be done.
The Chancellor said today: “I want to reassure the house that we will continue to protect the world’s poorest, spending the equivalent of 0.5 per cent our national income in 2021 – allocating £10billion at this spending review.
“Our intention is to return to 0.7 per cent when the fiscal situation allows.”
He said Britain would remain the second highest spender on overseas aid after the US.
Mr Sunak is pressure to gain control of the public finances after a year of dishing out huge amounts of cash to keep the country afloat during the coronavirus crisis.
And he warned today Britain was facing an “economic emergency” as debt was forecast to mount to £400billion by the end of the year.
The Chancellor told MPs: “Sticking rigidly to spending 0.7% of our national income on overseas aid, is difficult to justify to the British people, especially when we’re seeing the highest peacetime levels of borrowing on record.
“I have listened with great respect to those who have argued passionately to retain this target.
“But at a time of unprecedented crisis government must make tough choices.”
And as the Chancellor looks down the barrel of a bleak winter of local coronavirus restrictions, even more money will be needed to fund it.
The slashed spending would work out to save £4billion from spending based on last year’s figures.
But that would break the Tory manifesto promise to spend 0.7 per cent a year on aid.
It has been reported that Mr Sunak may propose to change the law behind the foreign aid promise.
The move will likely be supported by many Conservative supporters.
However, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major have all now demanded Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson scrap the plans.
And Malala Yousafzai, the Oxford educated Pakistani activist, called on Downing Street to keep to its election promise.
Malala wrote on Twitter last night: “130 million girls were already out of school before #COVID19. Now 20 million more might not return.
“@BorisJohnson – a generation of girls is counting on our support.
“Now is not the time to back out of commitments to education.”
In the fierce backlash to the plan, Tory ex-PM Sir John told The Times the plan was morally wrong and politically disastrous.
He said: “Cutting our overseas aid is morally wrong and politically unwise.
“It breaks our word and damages our soft power.
“Above all, it will hurt many of the poorest people in the world. I cannot and do not support it.”
Mrs May is also reported to have expressed her displeasure at the plan to her colleagues.
Both Mr Cameron and Mr Blair made a joint intervention against the cuts to foreign aid last week, branding it a strategic blunder.
