Foreign aid: Aid cuts could see lives lost, warns senior Tory
Children could die as a result of UK cuts to the overseas aid budget, a senior Conservative backbencher says.
The prime minister is facing a possible Commons defeat after cutting spending of national income on international development from 0.7% from 0.5%.
David Davis – among more than 30 Tories against the move – said some UK-backed schemes have already been cancelled and “morally, this is a devastating thing”.
The government’s supporters say the cut is temporary, necessary and popular.
The Conservative Party committed to spending 0.7% in its manifesto for the 2019 general election – but ministers say it is hard to justify given record levels of peacetime borrowing during the pandemic.
The cut amounts to almost £4bn, but the government said it will still spend more than £10bn on foreign aid in 2021.