Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Boost aid spending to help Ukraine, says Cameron

Former prime minister David Cameron said he was ‘sad’ that aid spending had been cut by the Government.

Geraldine Scott
Wednesday 16 March 2022 16:53 EDT
David Cameron defended his relationship with Moscow (Victoria Jones/PA)
David Cameron defended his relationship with Moscow (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Former prime minister David Cameron has lamented the cut in the UK’s aid budget and said the Government could do more to help Ukraine, as he defended his own relationship with the Kremlin.

Mr Cameron called on the Government to “get back” to dedicating 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) to overseas aid, after it was cut to 0.5% last year.

He said the Cabinet should have a dedicated aid minister, who would be “100% dedicated” to the role.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has promised to return the UK’s aid contributions to 0.7% by the end of this Parliament.

But Mr Cameron said: “Let’s do more on humanitarian aid. We achieved 0.7% of GDP in our aid payments. I’m sad we’ve got away from that. I hope we can get back there.

“Let’s – with the EU – lead the donor conference, lead the aid effort.

“Let’s have a dedicated aid minister in the Cabinet doing development. The Foreign Office ministers do a great job but it’d be good to have someone who’s 100% dedicated to humanitarian aid and development.”

He also said permanent Nato bases should be created in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Asked whether he had any regrets about his own time in office and the relationship he had with Moscow, Mr Cameron condemned the “feeble” Western response to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, and insisted by the time he was in No 10 and Moscow invaded Crimea in 2014 the response was stronger.

But he said there had been “a sense that, look, you had to try and find a way of working with these people”.

Asked about a speech he gave at the State University of Moscow in 2011 where he said Britain and Russia would be “stronger together”, he said: “What I regret is in 2008, when I was leader of the opposition, when Russia effectively invaded Georgia, I went to Tbilisi to show solidarity with President Saakashvili. And if you look at the Western response to Georgia, it was feeble, there weren’t sanctions, there wasn’t pressure put in place.

“We should have done that in 2008 and we did behave differently in 2012 when Putin invaded Crimea, in 2014.”

He said by 2014 the UK was leading the effort on sanctions, adding: “When I think back to that time, you know, we were trying to persuade… I mean, the French at that stage were selling warships to the Russians.”

But he said when he entered No 10 “there was a sense that, look, you had to try and find a way of working with these people”.

“We had to work together over terrorism, we had to work together over climate change. We had to work together over banking regulations,” he said.

“I thought we had to do business with Russia and its leadership, which at that time was more (Dmitry) Medvedev than Putin.”

He rejected any suggestion that Russian money in London or donations to the Conservative Party from Russian donors had influenced policy.

“If the argument is that somehow Russian investment in Britain, or very small numbers of Russians supporting the Conservative Party, somehow changed our policy, I would say that it’s complete nonsense,” he said.

Mr Cameron refused to be drawn on accusations against Boris Johnson regarding the elevation of Evgeny Lebedev to the House of Lords.

Mr Cameron said: “Look, that’s for the Prime Minister to explain and to defend.

“The Lords Appointments Commission is an important body. I always listened to it very carefully. But I’m not here to start throwing bricks at the Prime Minister at this moment.”

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in