https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-theresa-savages-boris-johnsons-24524986?utm_source=mirror_newsletter&utm_caTheresa May savages Boris Johnson's 'poor-killing' aid cuts in devastating speech
The former PM will vote against the Conservative whip for the first time in 24 years, warning: 'More boys and girls will become slaves, more children will go hungry and more of the poorest people in the world will die'
By Dan Bloom Online Political Editor
13:38, 13 JUL 2021 Updated 14:23, 13 JUL 2021
Theresa May has steamrollered Boris Johnson's cuts to foreign aid in a devastating speech in the House of Commons. Speaking earlier, Boris Johnson urged MPs to back a motion that will reverse his cut in aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income. But the small print has enraged campaigners and many of his own back benchers as it may not actually reverse the cut for years. Mrs May today told MPs: “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 boys and girls will become slaves, more children will go hungry and more of the poorest people in the world will die."
She said the UK had only recently had a vision of itself as "an active, internationalist, problem-solving and burden sharing nation."
“Where is that vision now as the government turns it back on some of the poorest in the world?” she told the Commons.
She added: "We made a promise to the poorest people in the world. The government has broken that promise. This motion means that promise may be broken for years to come. With deep regret I will vote against the motion today."
Labour leader Keir Starmer also vowed to vote against the motion, saying: "Let's clear what these cuts would mean a million girls losing out on school, nearly 3million women and children going without life-saving nutrition, 5.6 million children left unvaccinated, an estimated 100,000 deaths worldwide."
As Boris Johnson harrumphed, Sir Keir said: "He says rubbish. That is the human toll of the choices this government has made."
And he said the cut had already slashed 60% from UK aid in Yemen and 50% in Syria. With the showdown vote due at 4pm, Boris Johnson faces an explosion of anger from charities and his own back benchers over a 'Treasury compromise' to reverse the Covid-triggered aid cut. Under the plans, the 0.7% would only be restored once the government's watchdog says it is not borrowing for day-to-day spending, and underlying debt is falling. No10 today insisted the test was last met in 2018/19 and the government had taken “tough but necessary decisions” due to Covid. But Mrs May said the test had only been met for one year in the last 20. She said she asked Chancellor Rishi Sunak when it would be met and he estimated four or five years. Visibly furious, she added: "We’ve borrowed £400bn! Where are the dire warnings about that?! It seems £4bn is really bad news, £400bn, 'who cares'!"
Keir Starmer added: "What the Chancellor is setting out today isn't a temporary cut in overseas aid, it's an indefinite cut."
Former aid minister Andrew Mitchell said the UK is “trashing our reputation” and the aid cut is “literally the equivalent of taking food away from starving people”.
On the Treasury compromise, he said: “This is no compromise at all. It is a fiscal trap for the unwary.”
He warned the cut could harm the Tories in seats like Chesham and Amersham, recently taken by the Lib Dems. "Anyone who thinks this is not affecting our party’s reputation is living in cloud cuckoo land," he said. "There is an unpleasant odour wafting out from under my party’s front door."
Boris Johnson insisted pro-aid MPs were “preaching to the converted” and he would restore aid spending as quickly as possible. "This is not an argument about principle the only question is when we return to 0.7%," the PM said.
"We must face the harsh fact that the world is now enduring a catastrophe of the kind that only happens once in a century."
But Tory ex-Cabinet minister David Davis said he would vote against the government, telling Times Radio: "I wasn't a particular enthusiast for 0.7%, in fact I abstained on it in the original vote because I worried about wasting money by increasing it too much. But the trouble is that by cutting it so quickly, with 90 days notice, we have left, stranded, abandoned, large numbers of women and children around the world. Hundreds of thousands of them short of clean water, short of food, short of medical aid in some circumstances in Sub-saharan Africa. And it means that lots and lots of people will die as a result of this. So I'm afraid the government would have to pull my fingernails out to make me vote for their proposal today."
Labour MP Sarah Champion, chair of the Commons International Development Committee, said: "This is a breathtakingly cynical manoeuvre and the house must not fall for it."
No10 said: "The UK will spend more than £10bn this year to improve global health, fight poverty and tackle climate change, and that makes us one of the biggest aid donors in the G7".
