The budget shortfall emerged yesterday during a speech by Baroness Kinnock in the House of Lords.
She said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was trying to deal with a shortfall of a whopping £110MILLION — and this is expected to grow next year.
Her disclosure caused astonishment in the Lords and came just hours after Mr Brown told the lower chamber, the House of Commons, that the "crucible of terrorism" on the Afghan-Pakistan border remained the "No. 1 security threat to the West."
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the cuts were the "direct consequence of Labour's decision to remove the FCO's protection against exchange rate movements".
He said: "Pakistan has been identified as one of the major sources of the terrorist threat to this country.
"Cutting FCO expenditure on counter-terrorism programmes in Pakistan because of the movement of exchange rates is clearly not the way to run an effective foreign policy.
"It is time that the truth is known and the full extent of the damage done to British diplomacy overseas laid bare."
The Foreign Office said it was constantly reviewing the precise allocation of its counter-terrorism spending.
A spokeswoman said its spending had increased year-on-year throughout the current comprehensive spending review period and was expected to increase again next year.
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The Sun Online |
