Neve Gordon-Farleigh
Boris Johnson receives support as MPs vote to cut overseas foreign aid, however faces division from some Conservative party members.
MPs voted in the Commons yesterday (13th July), to temporarily cut the foreign aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5%.
This decision has come after the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic, which will see a cut of nearly £4bn.
“the cut was proposed in November 2020.”
Undoubtedly, the pandemic has caused many consequences. The PM announced that £407bn had been spent by ministers during the pandemic in an aim to, “shelter our people from an economic hurricane never before experienced in living memory.”
Although the vote happened on 13th July, the cut was proposed in November 2020. The original 0.7% being met was set out by law in 2015 and the commitment reinforced in the 2019 election manifesto.
Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer spoke out on this decision saying, “Cutting aid will increase costs and have a big impact on our economy. Development aid reduces conflict. It reduces disease and people fleeing from their homes.”
“It is a false economy to pretend that this is some sort of cut that doesn’t have consequences.”
However, it wasn’t just the opposition who divided the Commons.
Conservative MP’s Against
A handful of Tory MPs spoke out against the cut, including Former Prime Minister Theresa May. She said in the Commons, “This isn’t about palaces for dictators and vanity projects, it’s about what cuts to funding mean – that fewer girls will be educated, more girls and boys will become slaves, more children will go hungry and more of the poorest people in the world will die,”.
“This is not who we are, this is not what global Britain is”
Andrew Mitchell also supported the Former Prime Minister before the vote saying, “In Chesham and Amersham they have the biggest Christian Aid group in the country, there’s an unpleasant odour wafting out under my party’s front door.”
“This is not who we are, this is not what global Britain is and I urge MPs tonight to vote against this motion.”
The vote itself saw a result of 333 to 298 with 25 Conservative Ministers voting against their party. These included that of Theresa May, Jeremy Hunt, Caroline Nokes and Damian Green.
During David Cameron’s time in office as Prime Minister, it was his government who wrote the 0.7% pledge into law. He commented on the vote by saying, “I maintain that the cut to international development spending is a grave mistake. When we committed in 2013 to spend 0.7% of GNI on international development, the UK made a promise to care, to act, to lead.”
With many concerned about the implication of this decision on people’s lives, Rishi Sunak assured ministers that this would only be temporary.
Although the cut may only be temporary, this is a decision that will affect many lives all over the world.
Featured image courtesy of Lucas Davies on Unsplash. No changes or alterations were made to this image. Image license can be found here.
Neve Gordon-Farleigh
Neve is a 21 year old freelance journalist, and our Head Current Affairs and Instagram Editor for Empoword Journalism. She specialises in social media journalism and runs the Journo Resources Tik Tok page. You can find her on Twitter @Neve_GF.