Treasury condemned for halting all ‘non-essential’ overseas aid spending because of cuts

‘Lives literally appear to be dependent on the Conservative party leadership elections’, Labour alleges

(AP)

All but “essential” UK overseas aid spending has been halted in an unprecedented Treasury move which a senior Conservative MP is warning will “cost lives”.

Aid organisations and politicians have condemned the crackdown – sparked by the cut to allocating only 0.5 per cent of GDP and the growing cost of relief work in Ukraine.

Departments have been told to suspend “non-essential aid spending” until Boris Johnson’s replacement as prime minister is in post, because the lower cap is about to be breached

Sam Nadel, head of government relations at Oxfam, warned that help for Ukraine “cannot come at the expense of responding to other emergencies around the world such as in east Africa and Yemen”.

David Lammy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, said: “At a time of chronic global food shortages, drought, rising prices and conflict in so many parts of the world, it’s extraordinary that UK developmental aid appears to have been suspended.

“Lives literally appear to be dependent on the Conservative party leadership elections.”

And Andrew Mitchell, the former Tory international development secretary, said: “To withhold spending on life-saving projects in this way will undoubtedly cost lives and further impair the UK’s reputation.”

Simon Starling, director of policy at Bond, the UK network for aid groups, told The Independent: “If the government sticks to the diminished 0.5 per cent budget while new crises like the Ukraine war emerge, more and more people will be denied the critical humanitarian and development support the UK promised to provide.”

The government said ministers are “prioritising overseas aid funding such as providing humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine”.

The Conservatives broke their own manifesto commitment by slashing aid spending from 0.7 per cent of national income – with no date for returning to that figure, despite a legal commitment.

The also axed the Department for International Development, downgrading the priority given to aid within the new Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, is also shifting strategy from tackling poverty to what she calls the “geopolitics” of countering China’s vast “belt and road” programme.

Now, in an instruction to departments, the Treasury has warned that the 0.5 per cent cap could be breached because of the bills for helping Ukraine and resettling refugees from Afghanistan.

It says controversial spending decisions must be put on hold until a new prime minister is in place – making aid spending a dilemma for either Ms Truss, or her rival Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman denied the block on some projects would be “life threatening”, insisting only “non urgent spending” will be halted.

He rejected funding humanitarian aid for Ukraine separately – to avoid further cuts for the developing world – arguing spending must remain “within budget”.

“People would expect us to take heed of the amount of money we have available to spend without adding additional debt,” the spokesman said.