Thread by @willrworley

Estimates Day debate on UK aid begins. @SarahChampionMP opens by saying that she wanted to examine the FCDO's spending plans but information "simply isn't being shared by the FCDO" and @CommonsIDC has had to "fight tooth + nail to extract whatever info it can from gov"

Champion says gov is showing "contempt" for parliamentary scrutiny

Champion continues on this theme.
A lot of what she refers to in her speech can be found here:
devex.com/news/fcdo-givi…

"Questions to members dodged or simply ignored"

"With questions to members dodged or simply ignored, parliament is facing a constant uphill struggle for the most basic details that we should be entitled to" says Champion

Considerable financial waste caused by cuts, says Champion. Cites global health programs in particular.

Devex has been running a tracker which monitors the cuts - devex.com/news/tracking-…

Labour MP Anna McMorrin then asks abt Syria border crossings. Says there is a "moral as well as an economic imperative for the Govt to use it’s diplomatic might and maintain support for the reauthorisation and readoption of 3 critical border crossings into NW and NE Syria"

Citing FCDO evasion, Champion continues: "These aren't the actions of a gov't that is proud. They seem like the actions of a gov't that is trying to cover up their shocking reductions in funding + the devastating results

Champion concludes by asking ministers for:
1. Publish indiv country allocations for 21/22
2.Provide immediate clarity to orgs implementing aid pgs on their funding for 21/22
3. "Most fundamental of all" detail steps for return to 0.7 aid spending

Champion finishes by thanking FCDO officials and aid agency staff for their "amazing job"

Former PM Theresa May echoes Champion's thanks to aid workers.
May stresses that today's debate "cannot be used as a proxy vote on 0.7"

May raises 2 key issues:

1. From limited info available on aid, "seems to be little suggestion from gov't" they are paying attn to links bw dif elements of spending. "This is often a holistic matter + can't be looked at in silos"

Eg girls education links to modern slavery

.@AnthonyMangnal1 says the same point applies to tackling gender based violence - why return to 0.7 is needed

@AnthonyMangnal1 May says gov appear to have cut in siloes

@AnthonyMangnal1 "I urge the government to look at those [sectoral] links" says May

May highlights contradictions bw intgrated review promises + cuts.

Her 2nd point relates to the UK's national standing.

"I fear [the DFID-FCO merger] is reducing the UK's clout on the world stage and its cut in overseas aid is but one eg of that" say May

May says gov need to look at DFID expertise within FCDO and be sure dept doesn't lose that expertise.

Andrew Mitchell says DFID has been completely dismantled. Even in Thatcher era, there was ODA in FO, but "there is nothing like that today, the whole thing has been completely smashed to pieces"

May says it is "absolutely imperative if we are going to be continued to be respected as a country that leads in relation to overseas aid that not only we spend the money but also we have the epxertise to ensure that money is being spent properly. ...

... and & it is a different skill set from hosting receptions in the British embassy and getting to know local businessmen and politicians" adds May, in a thinly veiled swipe at the Foreign Office

May says it looks like a "perfect storm" where not only has money gone but the experts aren't there in FCDO to ensure a restored 0.7 budget is being spent effectively.

May hopes UK can restore respect gained from aid programs around the world, restore 0.7, look holistically at aid spending, don't lose DFID expertise "then we might be able return to [being] an enterprising, outward looking + truly global Britain fully engaged with world"

At the moment, the message is rather different, says May

.
@TomTugendhat
says he shares the views of Champion + May. Focusing his argument on the Integrated Review - says there is "slight dissonance" bw commitments and aid cuts - which have undermined UK policy + weakened bilateral ties

@TomTugendhat "It seems to me what we are doing is racking up the small print while others are racking up the newsprint of their achievements, and I think thats a mistake... what we really need to be doing is demonstrating our place around the world" says Tugendhat

@TomTugendhat "I would never argue an ambassador shd be the admiral of a fleet... the same is true for aid spending. there really is a technical expertise here that is not the same as the strategic oversight of foreign policy" says Tugendhat

@TomTugendhat Ties to Lebanon, where UK has invested heavily + have built a "fantastic relationship with a v imp strategic partner in the Middle East" are also fantastic for Britain says Tugendhat.

@TomTugendhat Tugendhat says OCED definition of what counts as aid is "historically anachronistic" + we need to update.
Spending money on armed forces to keep the peace + allow development is an essential biulding block of development and therefore shd be ODA-ble

@TomTugendhat Tugendhat talks abt the change to footprint in Sahel countries, despite new embassies. But "not just good enough in areas like that to have nice words, you also need to have nice actions"

@TomTugendhat For Mali, Niger, Chad "there is no budget line" says Tugendhat. So we will see UK efforts branded World Bank, WFP, etc -- reducing "impact of global britain"

@TomTugendhat Tugendhat - whose @CommonsForeign is investigating global health - also raises cuts to disease research, NDTs, health spending in Nigeria

@TomTugendhat @CommonsForeign The Prime Minister's vision for UK in world seems to have "got lost in translation" in on its way to the FCDO says Tugendhat.

Andrew Mitchell says politicians who oppose the aid cuts is a "meaningful vote, not a show of force"

Mitchell says 700k fewer girls will get into education bc of aid cuts, also higlights cuts to @UNICEF_uk "the engine of getting girls into school" and UNFPA
"It is not joined up government"

@UNICEF_uk McMorrin highlights the gendered impact of climate change impacts

Mitchell says "you cannot understand international development unless you see it thru the eyes of girls and women"

@UNICEF_uk 90% cut to NTDs are a "huge British taxpayer investments and one of the best investments you can make in global health," says Mitchell

@UNICEF_uk Mitchell highlights FCDO Minister James Cleverly's insistent comments from last July that the gov remained "completely committed" to 0.7

@UNICEF_uk Mitchell finishes by asking "when is the gov going to abide by Mr Speaker's instructions... to bring forward a meaningful vote"?

@UNICEF_uk Mitchell repeats his line that the gov is avoiding a vote "because they know they will lose a vote"

@UNICEF_uk Mitchell continues nudging the aid cuts issue into the broader domain of parliamentary sovereignty:

"If we cannot secure a vote on an issue of life and death, do we not need to look afresh at the balance of power bw the executive, gov, legislature and this House of Commons"

@UNICEF_uk Patrick Grady (SNP) says he's never agreed with so many consecutive speeches from the Conservative benches

@UNICEF_uk Grady reminding everyone that this is actually an Estimates debate where spending plans looked at. But v little information available

@UNICEF_uk MPs agreeing with each other that dept budgets should do as other nations do and publish year by year comparisions [changed spending info has made it v difficult to see where aid cuts have fallen]

@UNICEF_uk Aid was presented to the Scottish people as one of the benefits of the Union at the last IndyRef, says Grady. "I don't know what message the government thinks it is now sending to ppl in Scotland by slashing this"

@UNICEF_uk "These cuts will kill" says David Davis

@UNICEF_uk "In Syria, Yemen, and the Sahel, these small savings are a matter of life and death," says Davis

@UNICEF_uk Just because something is not happening here, it does not mean it's not happening, or that it does not matter, adds Davis

@UNICEF_uk "These [aid cuts] results will result in a death toll equal to or higher than [Bosnian] war" says Davis. Says UK has turned back on victims of war in a pandmic, and its happening against will of public and parliament

Ramming the point home, Davis says the deaths will be "miserable", affecting babies + kids from disease, women in childbirth

"Cruelty put in front of any constituent of ours wld draw both compassion + generosity from that constituent"

.@LaylaMoran says agreement across house on the issue is "moving and poignant" and rare, as is the silence in support of government.

@LaylaMoran Moran cites a letter from a constituent working on a cut project, which said cuts mean "it is difficult to imagine that project partners will be willing to trust UK collaborations again"

@LaylaMoran Better ways to cut than end live projects, Moran says

@LaylaMoran Moran also received a letter from a constituent working on a project tracking Covid variants around the world

"How on earth is that in our self interest?" she asks - calling new variants the biggest threat to pandemic recovery

"Our constituents are beginning to notice," says @LaylaMoran. Says aid cuts came up "spontaneously" on doorsteps in Amersham by-election as an eg of gov mistrust

Another MP says this isn't the case. But @LaylaMoran is clearly up to date with the latest @DevEngageLab figures

Moran says she welcomes the "government's complacency" as a LibDem seeking to win Tory seats

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab [Raab recently told Moran voters in Amersham wouldn't be "daft" enough to vote Lib Dem over aid cuts]

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab Voters understand the nuances of the issue, says Moran. Urges gov not to be complacent and calls for a vote and return to 0.7

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab Harriet Baldwin starts sympathetically to gov, preempting their arguments. Says she understands some gov positions amid economic difficulties , continued 10bn aid spend etc

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab But the sudden shift to 0.5% is "rather difficult legal and constitutional ground" says Baldwin, bc all MPs elected on 0.7% pledge

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab Amid bickering on what public polling is reliable on aid cuts, Baldwin says the only one she is interested in is that of MPs in a vote

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab In South Sudan, WFP having to chose between helping hungry children or starving children, says Baldwin

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab The UK gov is making the SNP's job easier, says @AlynSmith
'By replacing something the UK did well and excelled at ... and replacing it w something smaller, meaner, more politicised and less effective on the ground"

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith "On top of the cuts... we are equally concerned about the politicisation and diminished effectinveness of the remaining spend bc of the changes of priorities" says @AlynSmith

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith .@Pauline_Latham extols the virtues on aid funding women and girls but is cut off by the speaker

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Dr Andrew Murrison says messages from his constituents is aid cuts is something they are "relaxed" about, and they often say the budget shld be used to pay for domestic priorities. He supports aid but says "we have to talk the public with us"

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Murrison says he supported DFID-FCO merger for this reason

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Murrison says he will support the gov but dependent on it being a temporary, year long aid cut

(He is the only MP so far to have spoken in support of the aid cuts)

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Murrison says "this as a temporary measure, 1 year, is acceptable" even though he "hates it, loathes it" and accepts his responsibility

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Anyone who thinks this won't have real life consequences is "delusional" says Murrison

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Urges ministers to be very carful of 'Daily Mail test' - says projects that bring aid into disrepute are small things that ambassadors think look good

"bc it influences it fairly profoundly the views the public take on international development + trashes fantastic [aid] work "

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham Murrison also urges a review of the OECD-DAC rules

@LaylaMoran @DevEngageLab @AlynSmith @Pauline_Latham .@SarahOwen_ decries the focus on polling "on an issue this serious"

"Leadership is about doing what is right not just what is popular" says Owen

Owen launches into the most partisan speech from the Labour benches so far, attacking the Conservative gov's record on "charity at home"

David Mundell says he finds "rumoured" 80% nutrition cuts "inconceivable" and highlights difficulty getting solid information from FCDO

Mitchell asks that if UK breaks aid promises it undermines country's traditional "convening power"
Mundell agrees

Mundell asks for confirmation the gov will attend the Nutrition for Growth Summit later this year + that it will make a "generous pledge"

.@CatherineWest1 highlights that the scientist who helped develop the Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine, Dr Sarah Gilbert, developed her skills researching Malaria vaccine

@CatherineWest1 Neil Parish says the UK cannot turn its back on former colonies where people need aid.

@CatherineWest1 Parish also says the aid cuts also send a bad signal on the UK's commitment to climate action.

He cites the cut of the Green Economic Growth program, reported by @devex here:
devex.com/news/exclusive…

@CatherineWest1 @devex .@neil_parish says the aid cuts show UK is "not serious enough about tackling [climate change/deforestation] globally"

@CatherineWest1 @devex @neil_parish Alexander Stafford sticks up for the government. "We should not be sending vast sums of borrowed money abroad to foreign powers at a time we can least afford it. We must always look after our own 1st + foremost."

@CatherineWest1 @devex @neil_parish Stafford says his Yorkshire constituency of Rother Valley has some of the deepest pockets of deprivation in the country + has suffered badly during the pandemic

"That is where our aid money should be going during this national emergency"

@CatherineWest1 @devex @neil_parish Stafford says UK should use Brexit to re-engage with the Commonwealth + this is what FCDO money should be spent on

@CatherineWest1 @devex @neil_parish Mangnall points outs the cuts have hit Commonwealth countries

Stafford says whatever the aid budget its ("0.3% maybe?") it should go towards "our friends, the Commonwealth"

Marco Longhi says many of his constituents do not agree with Andrew Mitchell's position, even though they are just down the road

Longhi swerves question about whether there should be a vote on the aid cuts by referring to Brexit, during the process for which many MPs voted against the wishes of their consitutents, he says

Longhi says Labour's opposition to the aid cuts shows they are out of touch with working class people

Says he is concerned with other colleagues who are being "so generous with other peoples' money - a noticeable socialist behaviour"

"I would scrap the [aid] target altogether" says Longhi
"Foreign aid should and needs to be completely reformed"

After Longhi asks which other gov dept is funded as a % of national income, @AnthonyMangnal1 once again intervenes to give him the answer -- R+D, Nato etc

Deputy Speaker says many MPs have decided at last minute not to take part in the debate so there's actually lots of time to speak. Most unusual.

Longhi now coming out with straight lies, calling aid an "arbitrary and unaccountable system" that is "virtue signalled" about.

Sir Roger Gale calls for a meaningful vote on the aid cuts.

Says he is disappointed with some of the younger MPs in the house who think charity just begins at home

@NavPMishra highlights more cuts, including those to genomics research.

@NavPMishra Stafford asks if Mishra will accept the gov's role in distributing vaccines etc. Mishra highlights the UK's opposition to relaxing intellectual property for Covid vaccines/tools

@NavPMishra .@AnthonyMangnal1 starts by rejecting Stafford's earlier points, saying aid goes where it's most needed (eg Syria) as opposed to simply the Commonwealth

@NavPMishra @AnthonyMangnal1 When you stop polling and start asking constituents about the issues development budget deals with, "you get a very different answer to the polls that have been put out" says @AnthonyMangnal1

@NavPMishra @AnthonyMangnal1 Mangnall making it clear that rebels will back down if the gov promises a return to 0.7 next year. But the gov already avoided doing this - just before G7

Stafford asks what message it sends to his constituents that "overseas lives are more valuable than lives in this country".
Met with cries of "shameful", Mangnall replies UK lives are no less valuable

.@NavPMishra says "dividing people into us and them" is not helpful in this debate

@NavPMishra "If people are uncomfortable with 0.7%, it is down to this house to explain it properly + show them the true value of what Britain does in a globalised world," @AnthonyMangnal1 concludes

@NavPMishra @AnthonyMangnal1 Lee Rowley talks about a trip to Rwanda he went on with Andrew Mitchell + affirms shared principles - helping those in need "is part of what makes us human" + aid has transformative power

@NavPMishra @AnthonyMangnal1 Rowley says the debate risks projecting a "near uniform consensus", "that there's some type of mandatory, quasi religious commitment to a single venerated number"

.@SarahChampionMP intervenes: All MPs have a manifesto commitment to 0.7 + recent favourable polling numbers.

Rowley replies on manifesto that changes might be appropriate/necessary when there extraordinary circumstances

@SarahChampionMP Rowley asks MPs to consider that outside Parliament there is not universal consensus on 0.7

@SarahChampionMP Mitchell says Rowley did not necessarily absorb all the lessons from the Rwanda trip. Adds that MPs are representatives, not delegates, of constituents, + exercise judgement.

@SarahChampionMP Rowley says debate is becoming skewed by a "skirmish over an arbitrary %"

[A reminder you can see what programs have been cut in the arbitrary percentage cut here - devex.com/news/tracking-… ]

Mangnall sticks up for % spending targets

"I don't think it shd be that righteousness is outsourced to an international aid sector who I've been really disappointed in in this debate in recent weeks," says Rowley, accusing NGOs of framing which turn UK's "huge generosity against itself"

"This debate is moving away from the place of the people who placed us [MPs] here [in Parliament]," says Rowley. "It's our job to move it back into balance"

.@Tobias_Ellwood links Sir Edward Lee's comments on migrants crossing the channel to the FCDO debate.

Ellwood: "It's the fact we don't explain ourselves to the British ppl how this money can be spent that does affect them directly. If we did, we'd have more support for 0.7"

@Tobias_Ellwood Edward Leigh*, obviously

@Tobias_Ellwood Whether its a pandemic or migrants, you can't insulate yourself from the world, and that's why we have an overseas aid programs," says Leigh

@Tobias_Ellwood Karen Bradley says many people 0.5% is still too much, they want to spend 0 on aid. For gov to go to 0.7 to 0.5, it's not really achieving anything in terms of popularity

@Tobias_Ellwood Leigh says he went for a nice meal on Rishi Sunak's taxpayer funded eat out to help out. "Was that money well spent? Then I look at Yemen, and some poor boy has his leg blown off... dire poverty, war, deprivation. Do we not have a duty to these people?"

@Tobias_Ellwood Leigh says Enoch Powell wouldn't have liked 0.7 but wld have been pointless to drop to 0.5 to 0.7, then starts impersonating Powell in a Birmingham accent...

@Tobias_Ellwood "We will return to 0.7" says FCDO Minister @JamesDuddridge "I will hope to build back better"

@Tobias_Ellwood @JamesDuddridge Leigh says the upcoming budget in a few months gives the gov't a way out.

@Tobias_Ellwood @JamesDuddridge Leigh also says gov should gradually restore cuts by donating on top of 0.5 to specific programs

John Redwood supports the government but also the mood of MPs, he says.

Redwood says he doesn't trust the aid figures and UK is more cautious in classifying aid than other countries.

Says benefits to migrants settling into the UK shd be counted as aid

(if he means costs associated with asylum seekers, it already is)

"The government should lead the narrative + not follow a populist and dated view of what ODA spending is all about. Let's explain to the British ppl what this is all about... We excel at it," says @Tobias_Ellwood

@Tobias_Ellwood Ellwood says hard power + soft power can't be seen in isolation, are 2 sides of same coin

@Tobias_Ellwood If Afghanistan teaches anything, it is that you cannot build and retain peace by military means alone, says Ellwood

@Tobias_Ellwood Ellwood suggests that a Deputy Prime Minister should be introduced, who wld be responsible for all outward facing depts: FCDO, MoD, Trade "to develop grand strategies to tackle global hotpots that we are engaged in"

@Tobias_Ellwood Ellwood joins @NavPMishra in lamenting the loss of DFID, adds that Cabinet missing a specialised voice

@Tobias_Ellwood @NavPMishra Ellwood says "we must all recognise is where our complex and dangerous world is heading"

@Tobias_Ellwood @NavPMishra A new global soft power war has already begun, but the West hasn't woken up to it while China is weaponizing it's soft power, says Ellwood

Now is not the time to cut defence or aid budgets, says Ellwood

China and Russia are watching and they will not hesitate to fill this vacuum we are creating and destablise more regions across the globe, says Christian Wakeford

Wakeford makes 3 recommendations on the new development strategy:
1. Rtn to 0.7
2. Focus aid where needed most
3. More effective integration of diplomacy + development

After Covid, the next thing to focus on is Climate Change, says Wakeford - 0.7 "fundamental" to moving this forward he says

Returning to 0.7 ... "may not be the popular thing in the country, in my constituency, in my [Conservative] Party, but it's the right thing to do" says Wakeford.

"These cuts are a death sentence to millions of our fellow global citizens" says @ChrisLawSNP

@ChrisLawSNP .@ChrisLawSNP highlights the dmage the cuts have done to NGOs, says they have lose "decades of institutional memory"

Law says cutting and while spending more on nukes is "cold, hard and brutish"

.@SDoughtyMP concludes the final statement by saying the cuts are "morally wrong, financially illiterate, damaging to our soft power and reputation while others are on the rise."

@SDoughtyMP Minister Duddridge begins his defence of the gov by highlighting his own career in development related jobs.

@SDoughtyMP Duddridge defends the time spend on aid cuts, say they don't reflect his experience of how decisions were made
(An @icai_uk report found differently in the case of the 2020 cuts devex.com/news/2020-uk-a… )

No other country can match UK's historic aid record, says Duddridge. "The government are committed to getting back to 0.7%" he says

Annual report for FCDO will be published in Sept, says Duddridge. That will have financial information to end March + a forward look from 2021 - 22

Duddridge offers to come to the @CommonsIDC
Champion says she wants a hard breakdown of detail and asks for this to be in September's report. Minister says he will "look carefully" at it, while he isn't writing it himself, wants it to be "very fulsome"

@CommonsIDC Duddridge says £4.5bn is a massively significant number

Also says gov isn't led by polling

@CommonsIDC "We're ahead of US, Canada, Japan, Italy, so we should hold our head high" says Duddridge

@CommonsIDC Aim of reducing poverty overarches all the 7 priorities of the FCDO says Duddridge

Duddridge cites gov pledge to the Global Partnership for Education for girls education but fails to mention the many other programs that have been scrapped

Duddridge asks for more information on the cancelled project @LaylaMoran mentioned earlier which researched viral variants around the world

@LaylaMoran Duddridge basically rattled through all the MPs interventions with short remarks on what he thought of them, highlighting gov actions where relevant

@LaylaMoran Champion has the last word, thanks the House. Says the debate is about how UK sees itself and presents to world. "It pains me that piece by piece [UK's development history] is crumbling away by the decisions this government is making"

@LaylaMoran Champion calls for more clarity, to NGOs, Parliament - "on what gov's priorities really are"

@LaylaMoran "Defence, diplomacy, development and trade are all interlinked, by weakening developmment it weakens all of those," says Champion. She concludes by saying that threats like terrorism aren't resolved by bullets, but "full tummies + potential"

@LaylaMoran Deputy Speaker says his years on @CommonsIDC were some of the most valuable work he did in Parliament

its over. phew.