The Department for International Development is to be abolished and merged with the Foreign Office so that overseas aid can “serve our national interest”, Boris Johnson has announced.
The Prime Minister said that from September, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab would take control of the UK’s multi-billion-pound aid budget. He insisted the move would “put the tackling of poverty and deprivation at the heart of foreign policy”.
But critics accused the Government of watering down its commitment to overseas development. David Cameron made a rare intervention calling the decision a “mistake” which would lead to “less respect for the UK overseas”, while Tony Blair and Gordon Brown also criticised the move.
Mr Johnson told the House of Commons that a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would come into existence in early September, led by the Foreign Secretary. The post of International Development Secretary, currently held by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, will be abolished.
‘Outdated’
The Prime Minister is right to maintain the commitment to 0.7 – it saves lives, promotes a safer world and builds British influence. But the decision to merge the departments is a mistake. 1/2
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 16, 2020
All overseas missions will be run in full by the local British ambassador, rather than Foreign Office and DfID functions being organised separately. The Prime Minister insisted he remained committed to spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on foreign aid – but the development budget is almost certain to fall this year, because of the recession caused by Covid-19.
Mr Johnson said that the distinction between aid and foreign policy was “artificial and outdated”, adding: “We have a responsibility to ask whether our current arrangements, dating back to 1997, still maximise British influence.” He suggested that more British aid should be spent in strategically important areas such as Ukraine and the Balkans, to reduce the impact of Russian influence.
The Prime Minister said development funds were “treated as some great cashpoint in the sky” and told MPs: “It’s no use a British diplomat going into see the leader of a country and urging him not to cut the head off his opponent, and to do something for democracy in his country if the next day another emanation of this government is going to arrive with a cheque for £250m.”
David Cameron, who enshrined the 0.7 per cent aid spending target into law, responded: “The decision to merge the departments is a mistake. More could and should be done to co-ordinate aid and foreign policy, including through the National Security Council, but the end of DfID will mean less expertise, less voice for development at the top table and ultimately less respect for the UK overseas.” It is the first time the former Prime Minister has publicly criticised one of his successors.
Mr Blair said: “I am utterly dismayed by the decision to abolish DfID. The strategic aims of alignment with diplomacy and focus on new areas of strategic interest to Britain could be accomplished without its abolition. Wrong and regressive move.” Mr Brown added that the department had “lifted millions of people out of poverty”, saying: “It’s sad the Government is abolishing one of the UK’s great international assets.”
‘Land grab’
The move was welcomed by some Conservative MPs, who have long called for aid spending to take a back seat to other, more traditional forms of foreign policy. Bob Seely, MP for the Isle of Wight, said: “Aid is vital and will continue to be so but it is also true that we need to integrate better our overseas policy.” But Labour’s Sarah Champion, chair of the Commons international development committee, accused the Foreign Office of a “land grab” and predicted the merger would be “costly and disruptive”.
Experts questioned whether the decision to reorganise the machinery of government at a time of national and global crisis would prove to be effective. Tim Durrant of the Institute for Government told i: “If you don’t have a clear objective, then these changes can just be a distraction.”
Mr Johnson flagged up his intention to merge the departments more than a year ago when he was on the back benches. He said in an interview: “If ‘Global Britain’ is going to achieve its full and massive potential then we must bring back DfID to the FCO. We can’t keep spending huge sums of British taxpayers’ money as though we were some independent Scandinavian NGO.”
DfID was created in 1997 as a symbol of the Labour Government’s commitment to aid spending. Previously aid was administered by the Foreign Office. The department has offices in London and East Kilbride which will remain open with no job losses, the Government says.
Source: https://inews.co.uk/