Viscount Astor warns of the danger of fixing overseas aid targets in law

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Viscount Astor is married to Samantha Cameron's mother Annabel
Claims National Audit report shows risks of fixing foreign aid targets in law
Report revealed ministers spent extra £1bn at end of 2013 to hit aid targets
Lord Astor backs foreign aid spending but says it is a mistake to enshrine targets in law

By Jason Groves, Deputy Political Editor for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:04 EST, 23 January 2015 | Updated: 08:39 EST, 24 January 2015

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Samantha Cameron's stepfather Viscount Astor has warned of an 'ugly rush' on overseas aid spending

The Government’s overseas aid target is creating an ‘ugly rush’ to spend billions of pounds, Samantha Cameron’s stepfather warned last night.

Viscount Astor said a recent report by the National Audit Office, which revealed ministers had to spend an extra £1billion at the end of 2013 to hit the target, underlined the danger of fixing such goals in law.

Legislation requiring future governments to continue spending 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on foreign aid moved a step closer yesterday with a second reading in the House of Lords.

But several senior peers spoke out against the move, which required a 30 per cent increase in Britain’s aid budget in 2013 to £11.5billion.

Lord Astor, who is married to Mrs Cameron’s mother Annabel, said he supported foreign aid spending, but it was a mistake to enshrine the target in law.

The issue should be a ‘matter of policy rather than law’, he added, and the NAO report showed a target could produce an ‘ugly rush’ to spend money at the end of the year in a ‘panic’.

Former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson said the new law was ‘against both the national interest and, ultimately, the interests of people in poor countries’.

Labour peer Lord Lipsey said singling out particular items of public expenditure for ‘special treatment’ could only have ‘disastrous’ results.

Protecting some programmes would lead to bigger cuts in unprotected areas, he added. ‘This is a mad way to run the public finances.’

Lord Lipsey said the NAO report showed money had been ‘rushed out’ to meet the aid target and led to people doing ‘stupid things’.

Former Tory EU Commissioner Lord Tugendhat said he accepted that British aid had an important part to play in tackling global poverty, but it was ‘never a good idea’ to set a target that would be binding.

‘It will deprive government of flexibility to respond to changing circumstances,’ he added.

David Cameron (pictured with wife Samantha) adopted the pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on foreign aid before the last election, as part of his drive to ‘detoxify’ the Conservative Party

But former Tory Cabinet minister Lord Fowler backed the Bill, saying it was ‘what I would expect from a civilised and outward-looking country that recognises it has responsibilities to try to help the position of the poorest people in other parts of the world’.

David Cameron adopted the pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on foreign aid before the last election, as part of his drive to ‘detoxify’ the Conservative Party.

The Lib Dem peer Lord Purvis of Tweed, who introduced the Bill, said the measure was in Britain’s ‘long-term interests’ and would ‘play a major role in securing a long-term level of support for those in the world most in need’.