House of Lords commits Government to spend billions on international development Despite ongoing row over Britain's failure to commit to spending two per cent of GDP on defence, peers approve plans to enshrine foreign aid spending in law

Peers approved a new law committing the Government to spending
billions on international development Photo: PA
By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor
3:46PM GMT 09 Mar 2015
Britain will be forced to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on
foreign aid after peers approved a new law committing the Government
to spending billions on international development every year.
Despite an ongoing row over Britain's failure to commit to spending
two per cent of GDP on defence, the House of Lords, backed by the
Lib Dems and Labour, has approved plans to enshrine foreign aid
spending in law.
Tory MPs condemned the move. Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley,
said: “It is idiotic and unjustifiable to be spending more and more
money on overseas aid when we are still borrowing so much money
and have to make savings at home.
“Putting it into law is gesture politics of the worst kind and no self-
respecting Conservative could ever believe in being judged simply on
the amount of money you spend on something."
Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, hailed the move and criticised
Conservatives over the ongoing dispute about defence spending.
He said: "‘But I would say, particularly to the Conservative Party who
seem to be generating most of the noise around the money that might
need to be set aside for defence in the future – you cannot provide the
British people with adequately-resourced police forces, or adequately-
resourced military forces if you take this ideological approach to
reducing the amount of money that goes into public spending as a
proportion of GDP, for no economic reason at all, just for ideological
reasons.”
It comes after a report by the respected Royal United Services Institute
warned that defence budgets may be slashed by 10 per cent during
the next parliament, shrinking personnel for the three Armed Forces by
as many as 42,000.
Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children said: “This historic
decision will save millions of lives across the world.
"The British people should be proud of its commitment to continue our
country’s impressive legacy in helping the world’s poor.”