Aid Spending: This is not what global leadership looks like

EMBARGO: Immediate Release

Aid Spending: This is not what global leadership looks like

Ahead of the Government outlining its slashing of the development budget today, Liberal Democrat International Development Spokesperson, Monica Harding MP, said: 

"At a moment of such global insecurity, this Government’s cavalier attitude to foreign assistance is utterly appalling. This is not what global leadership looks like.

"It’s clear now that Labour’s cuts to the ODA budget - deeper and wider even than Donald Trump’s - will shred our bilateral aid programmes to some of the world’s most vulnerable countries. Further regional destabilisation will only undermine Britain’s own security, while allowing Russian and Chinese money and influence to flow into the countries we’ve chosen to abandon.

"The Prime Minister must also urgently set out a timeline for the return to pre-cut levels of aid spending. The Liberal Democrats have set out solutions, such as defence bonds and an increase to the Digital Services Tax, to boost our national security without defaulting on our international commitments.”

ENDS