A BILL to commit Britain to spending on international aid looks likely to become law – despite a furious assault from a local MP.
Shipley Conservative Philip Davies led opposition in the Commons to the bid to ensure future Governments set aside at least 0.7 per cent of international wealth.
Mr Davies branded the Bill “gesture politics of the worst possible kind”, arguing for the flexibility to adjust aid spending at times of austerity at home.
Mr Davies said that giving the same amount of money each year was an attempt to “make a few middle-class, Guardian-reading, sandal-wearing, lentil-eating do-gooders with a misguided guilt complex feel better about themselves."
He described humanitarian aid – after conflict, famine and natural disasters – as “very important”, but laid into much of spending for development overseas.
But former prime minister Gordon Brown broke off from the independence referendum campaign in Scotland to back the plans.
Mr Brown told MPs: “What we are talking about today is how we keep the promises we have made as a country and as an international community."
Despite opposition from nine Tory backbenchers, the Government backed the Bill, brought forward by a Liberal Democrat backbencher.
It will now be reviewed by a committee of MPs and, with Government support, stands a fair chance of becoming law before the general election next May.
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