International development charity, Christian Aid, has warned the Government’s Autumn Budget represents a “betrayal of the world’s most marginalised people” and warned if the UK is serious about making a positive contribution to tackling poverty, the Chancellor must “restore the UK aid budget today.”
Jennifer Larbie, UK Advocacy and Policy Lead, Christian Aid said:
"By eroding the real value of UK aid, this Budget represents a betrayal of the world’s most marginalised people.
“Designating the UK’s vaccine contribution and IMF Special Drawing Rights as contributions to a shrinking aid budget will cut billions from the UK’s effort to tackle poverty. Whether rules allow it or not, other countries aren’t sinking to this kind of creative accounting.
“On the eve of COP26, developing countries are already battling the climate crisis. In South Sudan, unrelenting floods are sweeping away homes and crops, and forcing countless families to flee. This is not the time to be further cutting the UK’s aid budget.
“The Government’s 'Global Britain’ slogan will ring hollow to the poorest countries, just when Ministers needs their trust to convene a successful COP. If the UK is serious about making a positive contribution to tackling poverty, the Chancellor must restore the UK aid budget today.”
On the Chancellor's 'fiscal judgement' to return spending 0.7% of GDP on overseas aid by 2024, if the recovery is strong, Christian Aid's Jennifer Larbie added:
"Today’s Budget only commits to potentially reinstating, three years from now, a commitment to aid the Chancellor himself broke. No ifs and no buts, the UK's global aid budget must be restored today. That is the commitment people on the brink of famine and humanitarian disaster need."
ENDS.
