Originally posted on bond.org.uk on 13/07/2021
Today, MPs have voted to approve the Treasury motion seeking to commit the government to spending 0.7% of GNI on aid only when the UK is no longer borrowing for day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling.
Stephanie Draper, CEO of Bond, the UK network of organisations working in international development said:
"Today, MPs broke their promise to the electorate to address global challenges and turned their backs on those in need. It means that children can no longer go to school, vaccines are left to expire and marginalised communities are left to face hunger, malnutrition and disease. The aid budget is already linked to economic performance and therefore affordable. These additional measures are unnecessary and draconian. They are a death-knell for the government’s ‘Global Britain’ agenda and leadership in international development.
This was a political choice, not an economic one, which will do little other than hurt the world’s most marginalised women, men and children and damage Britain’s reputation in the world.”
