UK Labour's Lammy casts doubt on returning to 0.7% aid budget

A senior figure in the United Kingdom’s opposition Labour Party has cast doubt on the party’s commitment to the 0.7% aid spending target.

David Lammy, shadow foreign secretary, said: “We will get Britain back on track to meet its commitment to the U.N.’s 0.7% development target as soon as possible as the fiscal situation allows.”

Lammy’s use of the term “when the fiscal situation allows” to describe returning to the 0.7% aid budget — still mandated by law — caused concern among development advocates, as it is exactly the same line that has been used by the Conservative government since it announced the aid budget cut in 2020.

Many in the sector have since come to believe privately that a return to 0.7% aid would not happen until a Labour victory, and there was shock at Lammy’s comments, made at Christian Aid’s annual lecture on Tuesday.

Labour politicians have been greatly critical of the U.K. aid cuts, and have repeatedly committed to returning to a 0.7% aid budget. The U.K.’s official development assistance spending is severely strained and facing further cuts over the next 18 months. Labour is unlikely to be able to meet Lammy’s promises to “restore the U.K.’s leadership in international development” unless it increases funding.

Asked how Labour would judge when the fiscal situation would be acceptable, Lammy reportedly said, “it would be fiscally irresponsible for me to tell you the terms under which we would return to 0.7%.”

The Conservatives’ fiscal conditions for a return to 0.7%, introduced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor, are when the government is not borrowing for day-to-day spending and when underlying debt is falling — conditions considered unlikely to be fulfulled. 

Earlier in his speech, Lammy himself criticized the Conservatives’ aid budget cuts, saying the government had “knocked down the pillars upon which Britain’s development leadership was built … and stripped billions from vital aid programs.”

Shadow International Development Secretary Preet Gill did not respond to calls from Devex on Wednesday. On Twitter, she lauded Lammy for a “great speech.”

Lammy’s comments on aid and development have previously caused controversy. In September, an argument erupted at the Labour Party conference after Lammy said he was opposed in “very strong terms” to restoring the Department for International Development — despite party leader Keir Starmer having previously voiced his support for restoring DFID. The department was closed in 2020 in a merger Lammy described as “bungled” in his speech on Tuesday.

Instead, Labour will launch a “new model” dedicated to international development, but its plans for doing so remain vague.

“We are working at the moment on what are the best structures of delivery to restore transparency, value for money and focus to the U.K.’s international development,” Lammy said.