Keir Starmer to carry out largest cut to UK overseas aid in history

With the amount committed to refugees in the UK, and now this cut, there will be almost nothing left. It’s an absolute mess,

one official from the sector said

We implore you to reverse this decision before significant damage is done to both the UK’s development and humanitarian work and its global reputation,

said the letter organised by Bond, an umbrella organisation for UK overseas aid groups

No one wants to work on closing down programmes they have spent their working life setting up,

said one civil servant

When I was commanding an armoured brigade in the mid-90s, I had 120 tanks, 24 big artillery pieces, two armoured infantry battalions, and a lot more,

Richards explained

We need to be very grown-up about this and live within what is actually physically and militarily possible rather than what our political leaders sometimes would aspire to do,

Davis said

Keir Starmerprime Minister

The reason for this is straightforward: Putin’s aggression does not stop in Ukraine. Russian spy ships menace our waters. Russian planes enter our airspace. Russian cyber-attacks hit our NHS. And just seven years ago, there was a Russian chemical weapons attack in broad daylight on the streets of Salisbury. We can’t hide from this,

Starmer said

We have already made a number of changes, introducing a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment, establishing the Victim Witness Care Unit, and ensuring powerful sanctions are in place to deal with unacceptable behaviour. But we recognise there is much more work to do,

they added

President Zelenskyy himself initially said 100,000-200,000 troops. You’ve then got to rotate those,

he said

The UK has been under pressure for years along with other European allies to increase the proportion of GDP it spends on defence and the proportion within that on R&D [research and development] and genuine investment, reflecting concerns that America is still largely bankrolling European defence,

Martill said

The increase in spending would contribute to the UK’s defence but also to the broader defence of Europe and would feed directly into the UK’s position in NATO and its contribution to other formats for defence cooperation,

Martill said

Keir Starmerprime Minister

It is my first duty as prime minister to keep our country safe. In an ever more dangerous world, increasing the resilience of our country so we can protect the British people, resist future shocks and bolster British interests is vital,

Starmer said, according to a government handout

Keir Starmerprime Minister

Now is the time to step up and tackle poverty, conflict and insecurity, not further reduce the aid budget,

Miliband, who like Starmer is a member of the Labour Party, said in a statement

There’s pressures on public spending, and he’s [Starmer’s] giving himself a major challenge by promising not to increase various taxes but also wanting to do more on public spending in relation to defence and health and elsewhere,

Mitchell explained

Ben Wallace (basketball)former Defence Minister

Tone deaf to dangers of the world and demands of the United States,

Wallace wrote on X,

By spending more on defence, we will deliver the stability that underpins economic growth and will unlock prosperity through new jobs, skills and opportunity across the country,

he added

I don’t think there’s any doubt that there’s a need to increase defence spending, but I think that cutting that from the aid budget is self-defeating. … [As] Russia invades Ukraine, the UK’s main response is to cut its international aid budget. I think that’s a terrible look for the UK reputationally and short-sighted,

he said

Well we are at the early stages of that, and obviously I am not going to get ahead of myself until we have made decisions. But as I have said before, in terms of the big decisions on tax... obviously the Budget was the place that we took those decisions - but as ever, going into a statement I am not going to say in advance what we might do and what we might not do.”

Sir Keir declined to rule that out, stating

Getting towards 3 per cent of GDP will eventually mean more tough choices and sacrifices elsewhere – whether higher taxes or cuts to other bits of government.”

IFS associate director Ben Zaranko said

Let me not let hares running, the big decisions were in the Budget of last year and that's the way we are approaching this spring statement.”

He said

The Cabinet had a discussion on it and we were all united that the number one responsibility of any government is to keep its citizens safe

She added