A close ally of Keir Starmer is drawing up plans to scrap the UK’s aid watchdog, prompting concerns that the government is attempting to escape scrutiny while implementing “brutal” cuts.
Jenny Chapman, the development minister, said she was actively considering the closure of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai), which examines projects funded by the £14bn aid budget.
The move has been condemned by senior Labour and Conservative MPs, with one claiming it is an attempt to “cover up the crime” of cutting billions of pounds from aid.
It also appears to contradict Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto, in which it said it would work “closely with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact” while in government.
Chapman, a Labour peer and Starmer’s former political secretary, first implied that the watchdog could be closed on Tuesday while being questioned by MPs on the Commons international development committee.
Asked about the government’s plans for Icai, Chapman said “it would be really odd” to hold back from changing the body.
“The question I need to ask myself is: has that investment achieved what it was designed to do and if part of it was sound public confidence? I would say no,” she said.
Asked by the Guardian if she planned to scrap Icai, which costs less than £4m a year, Chapman said on Friday: “With much less money to spend, we need to look at everything. As I wrote to the Icai commissioner yesterday, I have to ask myself what is the most strategic use of our funding, and best value for taxpayers. The prime minister wanted a line-by-line review of the aid budget, and there are no sacred cows.”
Chapman’s plans have been criticised by the committee’s Labour chair, Sarah Champion. “At a time of reduced funding and increased need, it is essential that the government spends its aid wisely – and with full transparency. To consider scrapping the independent body that secures value for money for the taxpayer is misguided,” she said.
Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative MP and former cabinet minister who set up the watchdog, said Icai reassured the public that money was being well spent.
“I can only wonder, therefore, whether this plan to scrap the watchdog is motivated by a wish to escape scrutiny and hide the inevitable damage caused by Labour’s brutal aid and development cuts – to cover up their crime,” he said.
Icai was set up in 2011 under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government to provide oversight of spending after decades of aid spending scandals.
It fulfils the “statutory obligation” for independent evaluation of aid.
Icai has recently published reports critical of the government. In April, the watchdog said that a decision to use more than a quarter of the aid budget to pay for supporting refugees in Britain is “wreaking havoc” with plans for development and reduced poverty overseas.
In November, the watchdog questioned why the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office office chose the “least ambitious” atrocity prevention plans for Sudan despite intelligence warnings that the city of El Fasher would fall.
Its 10 full-time officials are now examining the government’s plans to end violence against women and girls – a subject which has been championed by the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Chapman took up her ministerial role in February after the resignation of Anneliese Dodds over plans to divert funds from aid to defence. No 10 is aiming for a 40% reduction in the aid budget by 2027, from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income.
Under pressure from Donald Trump to increase Nato funding, the government expects aid reductions to provide £500m for defence in 2025/26, £4.8bn in 2026/27, and £6.5bn in 2027/28.
Tamsyn Barton, Icai’s chief commissioner until July 2024, said that arguing Icai should be cut because there are cuts in aid “does not stand up”.
“When there is less money to go round, it is all the more important that independent scrutiny ensures that it is well spent, and that if not, it is called out,” she said.
An Icai spokesperson said: “The Independent Commission for Aid Impact costs less than 0.03% of the total UK aid budget and delivers robust, independent scrutiny that helps ensure taxpayers’ money has maximum impact around the world, whether it’s funding vaccines, tackling climate change or supporting people caught up in deadly conflict.”
