DAVID Lammy has been left red-faced after the Prime Minister announced he would raid the foreign aid budget to boost defence spending – despite the Foreign Secretary just weeks ago warning against cuts to development funding.
The Foreign Secretary was accused of being “embarrassingly unprincipled” after comments he made about America’s swingeing cuts to international development spending resurfaced in the wake of Keir Starmer’s announcement on Tuesday.
The UK Government has bowed to pressure from America and will now seek to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2027. Donald Trump has been demanding allies increase military spending.
The money will come from the foreign aid budget, Starmer (below) said.
But in an interview with The Guardian at the beginning of this month, Lammy said that it would be a “big strategic mistake” for America to cut international aid and could boost China’s influence if they are able to fill the vacuum.
Lammy said: “What I can say to American friends is it’s widely accepted that the decision by the UK with very little preparation to close down [the Department for International Development], to suspend funding in the short term or give many global partners little heads up, was a big strategic mistake.
“We have spent years unravelling that strategic mistake. Development remains a very important soft power tool. And in the absence of development … I would be very worried that China and others step into that gap.”
Political commentator Owen Jones said: “Both the US and Britain cutting foreign aid is another example of the decline of Western power.
“Don't take my word for it – the embarrassingly unprincipled David Lammy said the same thing 18 days ago. The sun is setting on the West.”
Lammy only found out about the decision, which campaigners have said is a “betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable”, shortly before Starmer told the Commons on Tuesday afternoon, the Daily Express reports.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn raised the apparently opposing views of the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary in the Commons after Starmer's statement on Tuesday.
He said that the SNP supported increased defence spending, but not if it was funded out of the foreign aid budget which was a move from the "populist playbook".
Flynn added: “Indeed, that's a position which was shared and agreed with by the Foreign Secretary just a matter of days ago, when he said that it would be a ‘big strategic mistake’ that would allow China to step in.
“Why was the Foreign Secretary wrong and the Prime Minister right?”
