The failing Foreign Office published its annual report and accounts yesterday, revealing some of the wild lurches in policy and spending under Lammy. Labour ministers are keen to emphasise that some elements of international aid spending will fall – especially after one of their own, Douglas Alexander, publicly admitted that the public no longer support it. But the true picture is not convincing…
Alongside the accounts the Foreign Office published an equalities impact assessment that admits: “…the overall proportion of spend as a share of overall bilateral ODA remains the same on equalities focused programming, social sector spend and spend in LDCs, demonstrating that disproportionate impacts on equalities have been avoided.” Translated, that means that civil servants have found ways around the modest cuts to foreign aid programmes instituted under the Tories, and will still be spending on nonsense schemes like lectures on gender equality in Kenya, studying disinformation in Ethiopia and funding feminism in Iraq. Plus ca change…
In a new commitment, British taxpayers will also be forced to cough up for the International Development Association (IDA), a fund run by the World Bank. Labour is expanding foreign aid…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”