Stone says £4 billion cut in aid budget is 'despicably cruel' and 'thoroughly unpatriotic'
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NORTH MP, Jamie Stone, has described the UK government cut of £4 billion in international aid as "despicably cruel" and "thoroughly unpatriotic."
He hit out after the proposal to reduce the budget from 0.7 per cent of national income to 0.5 per cent was passed by a majority of 35 votes in the House of Commons. Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and easter Ross, was one of 298 MPs to vote against the plan.
The government has been widely criticised for the move, having promising to maintain international aid spending at 0.7 per cent in their manifesto during the last general election.
Aid agencies have warned that the cuts will kill tens of thousands of desperate people who rely on British aid in countries such as Syria, Yemen and South Sudan, beset by a deadly combination of conflict, extreme weather and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking after the vote, Mr Stone said: "The Government’s decision to cut aid in the middle of a pandemic is despicably cruel and will tragically result in the deaths of thousands of desperate people who will no longer have access to food or clean drinking water.
"Breaking their own manifesto pledge shows the Tories are not to be trusted. Even from a purely common sense perspective, cutting aid is going to hurt people in parts of the world that are currently suffering with new strains of the virus – parts of the world that are struggling to vaccinate anyone at all. Cutting this lifeline money is also going to give the pandemic ammunition against the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.
"We have such a proud tradition in Britain of helping people in desperate situations. This Tory Government has turned its back on this tradition and its obsession with flaming the hostile environment we see all around us in Britain today is thoroughly unpatriotic."
