Baroness Jenny Chapman faced questions from her own MPs and criticism from NGOs.
The UK Government’s Development Minister was accused of being “disrespectful” and “naïve” in Westminster after describing UK overseas aid as “global charity”.
Jenny Chapman, who was installed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer shortly after the government announced a 40% cut to overseas development funding in February, appeared in front of the Parliament's Select Committee for International Development on Tuesday.
Ms Chapman replaced Anneliese Doods, who stood down in protest at the Government’s decision to reduce the UK’s Official Development Assistance funding from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% to fund defence spending - the lowest level in decades.
This was despite a Labour Party manifesto commitment to increase ODA to 0.7% of GNI if they were to enter government.
Ahead of the meeting, the Aid Minister had faced criticism from NGOs after saying: “The days of viewing the UK Government as a global charity are over.”
Members of the committee - including some from her own party, followed with their own concerns - claiming the minister had disrespected the process by leaking her speech to several news outlets ahead of her appearance.
Labour MP and chair of the committee, Sarah Champion, said during the hearing: “I find that rather disrespectful to this committee.
“It is so naïve to not understand that development is how you prevent conflict in the future. So I don’t know why it was decided to link [aid and defense budgets] together. The decision that was made, to announce that, is not doing your case any good. I don’t want to hear it anymore in this committee.”
During the meeting, Baroness Chapman confirmed there will be less UK aid to spend on education and gender programming following the UK aid cuts.
Nick Dyer, Second Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said that in a 0.3% world it will be "difficult to provide core funding to BII”. British International Investment (BII) is the development finance institution of the UK government, overseen by the FCDO.
Director of policy and advocacy at Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development, Gideon Rabinowitz, said: “It is deeply worrying to hear the Minister confirm cuts to education and gender programs. Women, girls, and marginalised groups were disproportionately impacted by the previous round of cuts and the government is choosing to abandon them at a time when the US has gutted all gender programming.
“The Minister also said that she is fed up with hearing about the need to reform the international global finance architecture and wants answers about how it can be achieved. We encourage her to listen to lower- and middle-income countries proposals which explain how this can be done.
“However, it is welcome that the government appears to recognise that further core funding to BII needs to be paused, given the reduced UK aid budget. This will free up much needed grant-based funding towards vital FC.”
Baroness Chapman also confirmed to MPs that the Government does not intend to make any further cuts to the UK’s aid budget.
Appearing before the cross-party committee, the Minister said that the Government’s intention was to increase aid spending over time and that she had “no reason to think” that aid would be cut any lower than 0.3% of GNI.
She said the decision to make the cut was “a choice that has been made, and a choice that we have to implement as best we can”, adding: “For countries developing, we need to be an investor and not just a donor. It’s about partnership and not paternalism.”
She also said no final decision had been made on the UK’s contribution to the replenishment of several key multilateral institutions: GAVI, the Global Fund and the World Bank’s International Development Association.
Sarah Champion said: “I hoped to hear the Minister set out a clear vision today for how she would deliver these cuts while maintaining the UK’s existing pledges. I am alarmed that, with the clock ticking, there were no concrete commitments on what will be reduced and what is saved.
“We urgently need clarity; these are real people’s lives, safety and futures. More questions were raised than answered today. The Minister recognising and prioritising our frontline staff and committing to involving them in decisions is welcome, as is her intention to maintain aid spending at 0.3% of GNI without further reductions.
“Baroness Chapman admitted that the Government’s change in direction was ‘a political choice’. But choices have consequences. It appears that education and women and girls are no longer priorities; this will have a serious impact, not least to our international standing.
“Ministers insist that the UK remains a key player on the world stage. But I remain deeply concerned that we are laying down tools just when we need to get to work.
