Government does not rule out further aid cuts in letter to parliamentary committee
The chairman of parliament’s International Development Committee said the government had not committed to maintaining the current level of aid spending, which has already been cut by 40 per cent.
Last year, Keir Starmer announced that the UK’s aid spending would be reduced from 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNP) to 0.3 per cent of GNP, a 40 per cent cut. Where these cuts would lead was determined by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper in March; Total spending is expected to fall from £10bn in 2026-27 to £8.9bn the following year, before rising slightly to £9.4bn in 2028-29.
Sarah Champion, Labor chair of the International Development Committee, wrote to Ms Cooper seeking assurances that the government would not reduce the amount further by 2028-29. In her response, Ms. Cooper stated: “[The government’s] “Commitment to international development is as important as ever,” he said, and “we were able to set three-year allocations, providing teams with the predictability needed to effectively manage the transition to 0.3 percent of GNP.”
But Ms Cooper added: “As the department’s work is dynamic in nature, all future plans are subject to revision. Program allocations are continually reviewed to respond to changing global needs, including humanitarian crises and other ODA allocation decisions.”
By publishing your letter, Ms Champion said: “When I wrote to the Secretary of State asking for reassurance on aid spending, that response fills neither me nor my committee with confidence.
“The Minister rightly states that international aid both supports those in extreme poverty and improves our security at home. But I am disappointed that he has not gone further and made it clear that the government is committed to spending 0.3 per cent of GNP during the spending review period.”
Aid cuts will see bilateral support to African countries fall from £1.3bn a year to £677m (a 56 per cent drop) over the next three years; Countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Myanmar will also face severe disruptions. Meanwhile, climate finance will fall from £11.6bn over five years to 2026 to £6bn over the next three years; that’s a drop of almost 15 percent. Funding for key multilateral funds supporting global health, including the Pandemic Fund and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, will also be cut.
Last month the foreign secretary laid out the UK’s new approach to international development at the Global Partnerships Conference in London, co-hosted by the UK and South Africa. Speaking in her opening remarks, Ms Cooper warned that the world was “more volatile, more contentious, more unstable than ever”, with the Iran war in the Middle East one of countless threats that wealthy nations must be better able to address.
Ms Cooper said “bold new approaches” to international development were now needed, with the UK’s new strategy to prioritize aid to fragile and conflict-affected countries and establish new investment partnerships with more stable developing countries.
But Ms Champion said the lack of assurances about Britain’s aid spending in Ms Cooper’s letter to her did not support that message.
“This uncertainty is oddly consistent with what I heard at last week’s Global Partnerships Conference,” he said. “The foreign secretary has spoken decisively about how global partnerships can drive international development to prevent crises in the first place, and we have seen a new Convention setting out how we will strengthen international cooperation to tackle the global challenges ahead.
“Aspects of this new approach are welcome, but if the UK is to deliver this, help the world’s most vulnerable people and maintain our international reputation, then we must ensure that spending does not fall below 0.3 per cent,” Ms Champion added.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been contacted for comment
This article was produced as part of The Independent. Rethinking Global Aid project
