Sir Keir Starmer is “taking the axe” to the UKs “most effective tool for reducing global conflicts” by cutting the international aid budget, ministers have been warned.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the international development committee urged the Government to reconsider cuts to official development assistance (ODA) to fund defence spending.
Last week, the Prime Minister announced defence spending will increase to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with a view to it hitting 3% in the next Parliament.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer inspects a damaged vehicle during his visit to Ukraine (Carl Court/PA)
But to fund it, development assistance aid will be slashed from its current level of 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027.
Anneliese Dodds resigned from her position as international development minister warning that the spending cut would affect the UK’s support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine and could lead to the UK being shut out of multilateral bodies.
During an estimates day debate Ms Champion said Sir Keir is “taking the axe to our most effective tool for reducing global conflicts and for increasing our own national security.”
She told the Commons: “I urge the Prime Minister to recognise that if we abandon our commitments to the world in this way, we will see greater numbers of people displaced from their own homes as a rota of climate disasters, poverty and war.
“More people will lose hope and instead look to extreme ideologies for the answer, and civil societies will no longer have the skills to hold rogue governments to account.
“It concerns me greatly, as it should the whole House, that the Government has yet to carry out an assessment of the impact of their decisions, which is being rushed through without proper scrutiny.”
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said Sir Keir was ‘taking the axe to our most effective tool for reducing global conflicts’ by cutting the aid budget (Nick Ansell/PA)
Ms Champion further stated: “The work the FCDO has done to protect the most vulnerable, and I’m particularly thinking of children, people with disabilities, people in marginalised communities, is exemplary.
“But I cannot stand here and say that we will be able to continue funding that. I just don’t think it’s technically possible.”
As well as calling for an impact assessment, Ms Champion said a “scandalously large amount of ODA” had been diverted to the Home Office and there should be a cap on how much ODA can be spent supporting asylum seekers and refugees in the UK.
She said: “In 2023 this took up 28% of the entire aid budget costing £4.2 billion. It’s welcome that the proportion of ODA budget spent domestically is set to decrease very slightly this year.
“However, unless these costs are significantly reduced in the next two years, the UK is set to spend nearly half of its remaining ODA budget on domestic refugee costs by 2027. This cannot be right.
“Of course, these people need supporting but it shouldn’t be coming out of the ODA budget.”
Ms Champion concluded by quoting from a speech given by Sir Keir as leader of the opposition in 2021 when the then Tory government announced a reduction in aid spending from 0.7 to 0.5% of GDP.
She said: “‘It is a false economy to pretend that this is some sort of cut that does not have consequences’.
“The speaker continued, ‘our overseas aid budget goes beyond that moral obligation. It also helps build a more stable world and keeps us safer in the UK. This cut will also reduce UK influence just when it is needed most’.”
She added: “His words are as true now as they were then. Can I urge the minister? Can I urge the Government? Listen to the words of the then Leader of the Opposition, the now Prime Minister, and reconsider this.”