In a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron carried by The Times newspaper, Fox said he disagreed with coalition plans to put into law a promise to increase foreign aid to 0.7 percent of Britain’s national income by 2013, up from just over 0.5 percent in 2009.
That would increase Britain’s overseas aid budget by a third to 11.4 billion pounds ($18.49 billion) over the coalition’s expected five-year term at a time when spending in most other areas, including defense, is being slashed to curb a huge budget deficit.
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, which forged a coalition after an indecisive election last year, committed in their founding agreement to reach the United Nations’ target of spending 0.7 percent of gross national income on overseas aid from 2013 and to “enshrine this commitment in law.”
“I cannot support the proposal in its current form,” Fox said in the leaked letter.
“The bill could limit (the government’s) ability to change its mind about the pace at which it reaches the target in order to direct more resources toward other activities ...,” he said.
Britain’s defense ministry has escaped more lightly than other departments, but Fox has still been forced to make sharp cuts in equipment and personnel to achieve an eight percent real term reduction in defense spending over four years.
Even though British armed forces are heavily committed in Libya and Afghanistan, news reports this week said the Ministry of Defense is searching for billions of pounds of extra savings.
A source close to Fox told Reuters: “The defense secretary fully supports the principle of a 0.7 percent target on international aid. The issue is simply how best to reflect this in law.”
The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the letter.
A spokeswoman for Cameron said the government was “fully committed to enacting the 0.7 percent commitment into law, in line with the coalition agreement.”
Fox lost out to Cameron in a 2005 contest to lead the Conservative Party and is still believed to nurse leadership ambitions.
The coalition kept the commitment to the 0.7 percent UN aid target set by the previous Labour administration.
Polls show many Britons disagree with protecting foreign aid when many domestic services are being cut.
