No country will be ‘immune’ from aid cuts but full details may not be published until 2022

No country will be ‘immune’ from aid cuts but full details may not be published until 2022

No country will be “entirely immune” from aid cuts, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has warned, as he was grilled by MPs on how the slimmed-down overseas development budget will be spent.

Giving evidence to the international development select committee, a day after the publication of a brief but long-awaited statement setting out how aid money would be allocated this financial year, Mr Raab said information on country-by-country cuts may not be released until 2022.  

“I don't think it's realistic to think that any country will be entirely immune from the savings we have had to make. I want to be honest about it,” he said.  

“We're in the process of finalising country plans. But that takes longer. So that data would naturally come later. What I tried to do, as early and as proactively as possible, is give you the headline allocations,” he said. 

In a written ministerial statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday evening Mr Raab outlined how £8.11 billion of the aid budget will be allocated by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)  for 2021-2022. It amounts to approximately 80 per cent of the total UK spend.

However, the entire aid budget is to be slashed by around