Fox: Aid spending carries legal risks
Defence secretary Liam Fox writes to David Cameron in a leaked letter on aid spending, published in the Times newspaper:
“I have considered the issue carefully, and discussed it with [international development secretary] Andrew [Mitchell] and [foreign secretary] William Hague, but I cannot support the proposal in its current form.
“In 2009 the proportion of national income spent on ODA [official development assistance] was only 0.52%.
“The bill could limit HMG’s [Her Majesty’s government] ability to change its mind about the pace at which it reaches the target in order to direct more resources toward other activities or programmes rather than aid.
“I believe that creating a statutory requirement to spend 0.7 per cent carries more risk in terms of potential future legal challenges than, as we have had for the covenant, putting into statute recognition of the target and a commitment to an annual report against it.”
