Tony Blair and David Cameron urge Boris Johnson against cutting the foreign aid budget

Two of Britain’s former prime ministers have warned Boris Johnson against rumoured cuts to the foreign aid budget. The Labour PM Tony Blair and Conservative David Cameron have urged current PM Boris Johnson to retain the government’s spending on foreign aid when the spending review is announced next week.

UNN’s Oliver Down understands that Rishi Sunak is set to announce a 0.2% cut in foreign aid next week from 0.7% to 0.5% in his spending review. Cameron and Blair have released a joint statement that said the widely expected 0.2% cut would jeopardise the UK’s “soft power” status.

David Cameron told the Telegraph: “Abandoning the 0.7% target for aid would be a moral, strategic and political mistake. Moral, because we should be keeping our promises to the world’s poorest. A strategic error, because we would be signalling retreat from one of the UK’s vital acts of global leadership. And a political mistake because the UK is about to chair the G7 and important climate change negotiations. I hope the PM will stick to his clear manifesto promise, maintain UK leadership and save lives”. 

Tony Blair has said that UK Foreign Aid has been used to tackle disease, boost education and help to increase living standards across large swathes of Africa. He said: “It isn’t about charity. It’s enlightened self-interest. Neither the challenge of climate or coronavirus can be met without Africa. Nor can those of extremism and uncontrolled immigration. To change it is a profound strategic mistake, and I sincerely hope the government will not do it”. However, some have been angered by UK foreign aid being given to economically strong countries. One example of this was, in 2018 £100 million of UK foreign aid was given to India, despite the Indian government spending £98 million on a lunar probe.

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