Defence Secretary John Healey suffered a bruising encounter with Labour MPs last night as he attempted to defend the Government’s foreign aid cuts, it has emerged.
In a private meeting in Parliament, Mr Healey faced an angry backlash over Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to boost defence spending by raiding the foreign aid budget.
The Prime Minister, who is visiting US President Donald Trump in the White House later today, has pledged an increase in military spending to combat Russia’s threat.
He said Britain’s defence budget will rise from its current 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product to 2.5 per cent in 2027.
In order to fund the increase, UK spending on development assistance aid will be cut from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent in the next two years.
According to The Times, a group of a dozen Labour MPs – mostly with backgrounds in development – led a backlash against the plans in the meeting with Mr Healy.
But the Defence Secretary sought to reassure those MPs and peers in attendance that the Government would not halt spending programmes ‘abruptly’.
Meanwhile, Deputy PM Angela Rayner insisted the Cabinet was ‘united’ on the plan to fund increased defence spending by cutting foreign aid – despite claims of splits.
Defence Secretary John Healey suffered a bruising encounter with Labour MPs as he attempted to defend the Government’s foreign aid cuts, it has emerged
The Prime Minister, who is visiting US President Donald Trump in the White House later today, has pledged an increase in military spending to combat Russia’s threat
In order to fund the increase, UK spending on development assistance aid will be cut from 0.5 per cent of gross national income to 0.3 per cent in the next two years.
Anneliese Dodds, the development minister, was described as being ‘on the floor’ over a decision she is deeply opposed to.
‘She should have resigned immediately,’ a former minister told the newspaper. ‘She’ll never have any authority at Westminster now.’
Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary and former Labour leader, is also said to have raised concerns over Sir Keir’s decision to slash foreign aid.
But, speaking to broadcasters, Ms Rayner said: ‘It is devastating that we’ve had to reduce the overseas aid budget, but we had to set a balanced budget.’
She added: ‘The Cabinet had a discussion on it and we were all united that the number one responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe.
‘We recognised that we needed to make sure we had extra resources within our defence space.’
Sir Keir scrambled to pledge the increase in defence spending amid huge doubts over America’s commitment to European security after Mr Trump’s return to power.
It follows the US President’s repeated calls for NATO allies to boost spending on their armed forces and to shoulder greater responsibility for their own security.
Sir Keir said the £6billion-a-year uplift would ‘ensure the security and defence of our country and of Europe’ in the face of the threat from Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Mr Healey told last night’s meeting that Britain’s move to cut overseas aid differed from Mr Trump’s own decision to shut down USAid, America’s development agency.
He is reported to have said: ‘When Trump did it… he said ‘we don’t care about the impact’.’
The Defence Secretary promised that, by contrast, ‘we won’t end programmes abruptly’.
He added that the Government had to rule out higher borrowing or tax rises so there needed to be a way to ‘credibly and competently fund this decision’.
Mr Healey said that Labour could do ‘a much better job of selling’ how the defence industry supported jobs in every constituency.
But one MP said: ‘We need to remind the Government that development aid and defence spending are two sides of the same coin.
‘By retreating from the world, we will only spend more on the military down the line, long after Trump is gone.’
