PRIME Minister Theresa May has ruled out cuts to the UK foreign aid budget if she wins the General Election.
It’s effectively the first manifesto commitment from the Tory leader and one which will likely upset the right of her party who had suggested the money could be better spent on tackling the deficit.
May made the commitment after mounting speculation she was prepared to drop the pledge to spend 0.7per cent of gross national income a year on foreign aid. The UK passed a Bill in 2015, enshrining the commitment, making it the first G7 country to meet the UN’s 45-year-old aid spending target.
“Let’s be clear, the 0.7 per cent commitment remains and will remain,” she said at a question and answer event in the Aquafresh toothpaste factory in her Maidenhead constituency.
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, May declined to guarantee the future of the £12 billion annual foreign aid budget. This led to warnings from billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates that it would cost lives and erode the UK’s influence abroad.
The SNP’s international development spokesperson Patrick Grady said: “We now expect to see an unequivocal commitment to the 0.7 per cent aid commitment in the Tories manifesto – without trying to pass defence spending off as international aid.”
‘’The SNP is the only party strong enough to hold the Tories to account and keep them in check to deliver aid for some of the most vulnerable and poorest people in the world.’’ Meanwhile, chancellor Phillip Hammond suggested the party could ditch the 2015 pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance before 2020. He told the BBC the government needed “flexibility” on taxes.
As Jeremy Corbyn was campaigning in Wales, focussing on education, his predecessor Tony Blair used a column in George Osborne’s Evening Standard to say the Tories would win the election.
“There are many great Labour candidates and MPs and I will be fully supportive of them,” Blair wrote. “But the fact is that if the polls are right, Theresa May will be PM on June 9 with a large majority.”
He also seemed to implicitly encourage tactical voting, effectively telling Labour voters to back the SNP in seats where the Tories are second. “We need to add a new dimension to this election,” he said.
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