International Development Committee Chairs responds to aid cuts

The Prime Minister announced the Government would increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP, and that it would accelerate the timeline for doing this from 2030 to 2027.

However, he said the Government would fund this increase by cutting the UK’s aid budget from 0.5% to 0.3% by 2027.

Chair comment

Sarah Champion MP, Chair of the International Development Committee, said:

“I urge the Prime Minister to rethink today’s announcement. Cutting the aid budget to fund defence spending is a false economy that will only make the world less safe.

Conflict is often an outcome of desperation, climate and insecurity; our finances should be spent on preventing this, not the deadly consequences.

In 2023, Ukraine received £250 million in UK aid, more than any other country. We simply cannot afford to undermine this investment by putting more into a war chest.

The Minister for Development told our Committee earlier this year that the Government wanted to be “clear about what we are certain that we will be able to fund into the future”. Today’s announcement makes that much harder.

The Prime Minister said today that he was ‘proud’ of the UK’s pioneering work on overseas development. I am bitterly disappointed to see the Government abandon this agenda, not only pulling the rug from under some of the world’s most vulnerable people but endangering our long-term security.”

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

Image: House of Commons/Laurie Noble