New Labour's Overseas Development and Aid Policy - Charity or Self-Interest?

Robin Cook argued that New Labour’s foreign policy would have ‘ethical dimensions’ , and an assumption is often made, within existing literature, that this is an accurate statement when considering the overseas development agenda of New Labour government’s between 1997 and 2010. Tingley argues that the more left wing a party, the more likely they are to increase attention on, and funding of, overseas development aid projects. This article uses the New Labour governments, from 1997 to 2010, as a case study to test the argument of Tingley and determines that his conclusions are accurate in the case of the UK. This article will then argue, using the work of Breuning that the motivations of the New Labour governments, and the way they conveyed their policy to the electorate changed over time rather than remaining morally focused for the duration of their time in power. By focusing on the rhetoric of the Labour Party, the changes in motivation can be identified in the period 1997-2010, with a distinct move from moral justifications to more self-interested pragmatic reasoning, which confirms Breuning’s argument.