Scottish Greens slam decision to scrap DFID
Responding to reports that the UK Government will scrap the Department for International Development, merge its functions with the Foreign Office and “squeeze” the international aid budget, Scottish Greens External Affairs Spokesperson Ross Greer MSP said:
“This is a nasty attempt to play to the worst instincts of Boris Johnson’s rich mates. Britain has a long, brutal legacy of wrongdoing across the world and the international development programme is one small way in which the government has sought to make amends for that.
“Now this racist Prime Minister is scrapping DFID and ‘squeezing’ the aid budget. Abandoning some of the most impoverished people in the world during a global pandemic is despicable, but it’s also true to form for a Westminster government which is refusing to even feed vulnerable children in the UK this summer.
“DFID is a major employer in Scotland. After the closure of HMRC offices and job centres, it’s clear the Tories don’t care how many jobs they destroy here, or how much harm the loss of these services does to people in the UK and across the world.