Spending Review 2020

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Grand Committee

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Non-Afl) [V]]

My Lords, like many noble Lords who have spoken before me today, I want to refer to the cut in the overseas aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of GNI, which the Chancellor asserted was “temporary”. How long is “temporary”? When will temporary become permanent? Is this cut due to rising costs as a result of the Covid pandemic, or Brexit, or a combination of both?

What makes this decision to cut international aid egregious is that the Government have backtracked on one of their manifesto commitments—an objective supported by all living past Prime Ministers—at a time when Covid is ravaging and deepening poverty in some of the world’s poorest regions. Earlier this year, we witnessed the merger of DfID with the Foreign Office, which signalled the downgrading of our overseas aid commitment. Way back in June, I stated that DfID had delivered humanitarian assistance and helped to transform lives by reducing poverty. Scrapping DfID risks jeopardising the global Covid response and the UK turning its back on the world’s poorest people. It also risks the Government being unable to make a real, meaningful contribution in responding to the greatest challenges of our time, such as climate change, when the UK is expected to chair the Climate Change Conference—COP 26—next year and is also supposed to chair the G7. Both are important organisations and meetings, dealing with commitments to foreign and overseas aid. It is time that that was reviewed.

I hope that the Minister can indicate when “temporary” will change and we will see an increase back to 0.7% of GNI.