Foreign aid budget to be cut to £10bn, Dominic Raab confirms

The foreign aid budget will be slashed next year, Dominic Raab has said, as a former Government law officer warned the cut would be unlawful unless approved by Parliament.

Setting out the reduction pushed through by Rishi Sunak in last year’s spending review, the Foreign Secretary confirmed that the target to spend 0.7 per cent of national income will be slashed to 0.5 per cent in 2021/22.

According to the figures released on Tuesday, the aid budget will now fall to £9.9bn, down from £13.9bn in 2019-20, the last year for which comparable data is publicly available.

The UK's foreign aid spending is already believed to have fallen significantly this year due to the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

In a written statement, Mr Raab said the reduced budget would lead to a “sharpening” of the Government’s focus on its “core priorities”, including climate change, coronavirus, girls’ education, science and research, humanitarian assistance and promoting trade.

He added that the move was necessary due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the public finances, but pointed out the UK remained one of the world’s largest donors of overseas aid.

However, the decision to press ahead with the cut has reignited a Tory backbench rebellion, which is expected to come to a head in a Commons vote later this year.

Conservative rebels told The Daily Telegraph they expected ministers to bring forward legislation to enable the cut in late March or early April, adding that they were confident they had the numbers to inflict a Government defeat.

Andrew Mitchell, the former development secretary and ringleader of the group, added: “It seems unwise at the point when we are projecting Global Britain to go down this route and I’m far from sure that Parliament will agree to it.”

It came as a letter written by Lord Garnier, the former solicitor general, was leaked to the Evening Standard, in which he suggested the planned cut could not go ahead without a change in the law.

Under the 2015 International Development Act, ministers cannot intentionally plan to miss the 0.7 per cent target.

Asked about the letter while appearing before the Commons development committee, Mr Raab rejected suggestions the Government was “flouting” the legislation and added he would set out the next steps shortly.

He also insisted that ministers wanted to see the aid target return to 0.7 per cent as soon as possible, but was unable to set a time frame or the criteria that would be used by ministers.

"In the end, it requires a balanced assessment - a judgment call which is part art and part science,” he continued.

"But we have got to be confident that we have recovered from the fiscal battering that Covid has wreaked on the economy and the public finances."

In a statement issued afterwards, Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the development committee, said: “It is deeply concerning that during a global pandemic, and on top of already drastic aid funding cuts due to the fall in GNI, there are further ODA reductions on the horizon.

“If these cuts are rushed through, inevitably poor decisions will result. The Government should be open about the approach it is taking to these reductions so that we can scrutinise the process and criteria and be reassured that recipients and the UK taxpayer will see the best possible value for money from the remaining spend on aid."

Mr Raab also told MPs that he believed that cancelling the debt of developing nations to help them recover from the pandemic should be considered, adding that he had spoken with World Bank president David Malpass about the issue.

"I think that's got to be part of the conversation about recovering and building back better, stronger, because for some of those countries they don't have a chance without that," he said.

"I'm a big fan of trading your way to middle income status and the rest of it but without a bedrock level of economic capacity, which you won't (have) if you're in a debt trap, I think it's very, very difficult."

The Telegraph

Macron humiliation: President to be beaten by Le Pen in first round of election

A new Harris Interactive poll commissioned by CommStrat cabinet and the daily L'Opinion found that, depending on the various potential candidates on the right and the left of France's political sphere, Emmanuel Macron could lose to Marine Le Pen by a short header in the first round.

The French President would gain 23 to 24 percent of the votes against the 26 to 27 percent that the Eurosceptic Le Pen could secure, the poll found.

In 2017, Emmanuel Macron won 24 percent of the votes in the first round, against 21.3 percent for Marine Le Pen.

The French Presidential election next year is expected to see the pair at the centre of the debate again.

The National Rally leader lost to Macron in the second round of the election with 33.9 percent of the votes against 66.1 percent won by the President.

MEP Helene Laporte tweeted: "With up to 27 percent of voting intentions, Marine Le Pen would come far ahead of the 2022 presidential election, far ahead of Emmanuel Macron and Xavier Bertrand. We are on our way to victory!"

French MP Bruno Bilde added: "Marine in the lead in the first lap ahead of Macron!

"In 2022, the French will show this arrogant Macronie that the people are BACK!"

MP Julien Odoul also said: "Marine Le Pen would be in the lead if the first round of the presidential election took place today! This is only a survey, nothing is set in stone for 2022 but it feels great."

Macron has shifted his rhetoric to the right in recent weeks, attempting to pass new laws to drive home his emphasis on law and order.

However, the new policies on security, law and order have sparked heated debate in France – highlighting major divisions in the country.

Mr Macron will be looking to avoid a result similar to that of the European elections in 2019, where his rivals mopped up much of the rural and deindustrialised areas of northern, south-central and eastern France.

Christophe Guilluy, a leading political geographer, warned after the vote: “Macron’s electorate is besieged. They’re living in these new medieval strongholds. And it’s the periphery that is setting the agenda.”

Mr Guilluy wrote a book in which he set out the idea of a “peripheral France", predicting the rise of the Yellow Vest protesters.

In a message to Mr Macron's supporters, Mr Guilluy added: “They should be worried. The big cities, the metropolises, they are transforming themselves into citadels, surrounded by the working classes. This is big, and we saw it in the Yellow Vest movement.”

The Yellow Vests is a populist movement campaigning for economic justice that began in France in October 2018.

They have become notorious for huge protests in Paris which are still occurring today.

The movement saw demonstrators hit out at fuel taxes initially, but this anger broadened to other issues.

The French President also faced backlash for his new laws, aiming to restrict protests, protect police and combat radicalism. The legislation aimed to increase police protections, making it a criminal offence to publish images of on-duty officers with the intent of harming their "physical or psychological integrity”.

In November, between 133,000 and 500,000 people demonstrated in more than 70 cities across France against a proposed security law.

Eventually, Macron succumbed to public pressure, and ditched the controversial bill.

The Harris Interactive poll also found that a candidacy by right-wing figures Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse would collect respectively 16 percent and 14 percent of the voting intentions.

Whilst left-wing Anne Hidalgo and Arnaud Montebourg would collect respectively 6 or 7 percent and 5 percent of the votes.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon would win 10 to 11 percent of the votes.

The poll was conducted online on January 19 and 20 with a representative sample of 1,403 people, including 976 registered on the electoral roll, using the quota method.

Daily Express

PM confirms data on easing restrictions will be assessed before mid-February

Boris Johnson said the government will be "looking at the potential of relaxing some measures" before the middle of next month.

Speaking at a Covid-19 vaccination site at Barnet Football Club in north London, the PM said: "We're looking at the data as it comes in, we're looking at the rates of infection, as you know the JCVI [Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] groups 1 to 4 [on the priority list] will be vaccinated by February 15. Before then we'll be looking at the potential of relaxing some measures. But don't forget this country has made huge progress in reducing infection, I don't think people want to see another big surge in infection."

A Number 10 source told Sky News the PM meant the "looking at" restrictions will happen before the middle of next month, not the relaxing of measures.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at the weekend that any easing was a "long, long, way off".

Mr Johnson also said ministers were "definitely looking at" requiring travellers arriving into the UK to quarantine in hotels. He said: "We have to realise there is at least the theoretical risk of a new variant that is a vaccine-busting variant coming in, we've got to be able to keep that under control."

Mr Johnson added: "We want to make sure that we protect our population, protect this country against reinfection from abroad. That idea of looking at hotels is certainly one thing we're actively now working on. We need a solution that gives us the maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad."

Last week, the government closed all UK travel corridors - which had allowed arrivals from some countries to avoid having to quarantine - until at least 15 February.

People coming to the UK from abroad also now have to show proof of a negative COVID test from up to 72 hours before their journey.

But the PM is reportedly under pressure from some members of his cabinet to go further and follow the examples of countries like Australia and New Zealand, which have mandatory quarantines.

The PM declined to guarantee that all pupils will be back at school before Easter, but promised to tell parents and teachers "as much as we can as soon as we can. Daily we're looking at the data and trying to work out when we're going to be able to lift restrictions," he said. Schools obviously will be a priority but I don't think anybody would want to see the restrictions lifted so quickly while the rate of infection is still very high so as to lead to another great spread of infection."

Alan McGuinness, political reporter Sky News