Column – Cutting foreign aid is a false economy as we recover from the pandemic
June 14, 2021
In my last column for the Press I wrote about the need for the Government to lift all remaining restrictions on the 21st of June, so that all sectors of the economy can get back to firing on all cylinders. At the time of writing, it appears increasingly likely that this will be pushed back by a month, to the frustration of many small businesses especially in leisure and hospitality, as well as couples who have spent months planning their big day.
I have also spoken recently about my frustration with the with the lacklustre approach that the Government seems to be taking to reopening foreign travel. The inclusion of Portugal on the green list gave holidaymakers and the travel sector at least some confidence that normal service would be possible to a handful destinations in the short and medium term. It’s abrupt removal two weeks ago will have knocked this confidence and makes a mockery of the Government’s promise to provide fair warning for destinations that are at risk of moving to the amber list.
Underpinning the Government’s cautious approach of course are concerns about the development and spread of new Covid variants around the world and the impact that this might have on the efficacy of our vaccination campaign. Whilst I question whether the current restrictions on European travel are proportionate to this threat, I have been supportive of the general traffic light system. I believe however that the Government should have stuck to its initial parameters instead of continually moving the goalposts. We can only close ourselves off for so long and attention now needs to turn to addressing the underlying problem of helping other countries catch up in vaccinating their populations.
This is why I was surprised that the Government thought that now would be a good time to renege on our long-held commitment to spend at least 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid. The Prime Minister has rightly announced his intention to pursue efforts to vaccinate the world by the end of next year but to achieve this he is going to have to deliver funds to back up his ambition. Already from within the aid budget, our contribution to the COVAX AMC is amongst the largest, and will support COVID-19 vaccines for up to 92 developing countries by contributing to the supply of 1.3 billion doses in 2021, but more still has to be done.
We need to speed up worldwide vaccinations to avoid new variants taking a foothold and spreading across borders. Whilst it is tempting to say that £4.3 billion is a lot of money that could be redirected towards domestic priorities, I can guarantee that the cost of additional lockdowns or long-term restrictions on travel will be far more costly.
In 2013, the UK became the first G7 nation to enshrine into law our commitment to the UN development spending goal of 0.7% of GDP, alongside five other countries worldwide. Within the Private Members Bill that introduced the 0.7% target, a section is dedicated to what happens if the target is not met, with the Government obliged to make a statement before Parliament.
I therefore supported efforts led by Andrew Mitchell MP, a former Secretary of State for International Development under the 2010-2015 coalition government, to hold the Government to this legally binding commitment. I also spoke to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP, ahead of the potential vote last week and lobbied for the full aid budget to be restored and for all funds to be pledged to helping speed up vaccinations in the developing world. Whilst the amendment that he tabled was ultimately not selected by the Speaker of the House of Commons for procedural reasons, the Government must be wary that there are a significant number of backbench Conservative MPs lobbying for change.
In the meantime, I hope that the Government will see the inconsistency in their position and accept that the strategy of being a ‘vaccinated island’ whilst the virus continues to spread across the globe is not sustainable in the long-term. It is not possible for any one country to weather this in isolation.
