Annie Lennox says UK will be hit by cuts to foreign aid
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said development assistance aid will be slashed to raise defence spending.
Annie Lennox has said the planned cuts to foreign aid will “affect us in the end”.
The Scottish singer-songwriter and activist, who rose to fame in the duo Eurythmics, was speaking after the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced development assistance aid will be slashed to increase defence spending.
Lennox has founded the Sing campaign, which focuses on HIV on women and children, particularly in South Africa, Malawi and the UK, and female empowerment charity The Circle.
She was asked about the impact of the cuts on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, and said a “very, very tiny amount” of the UK budget was spent on development aid.
“So the perception of aid being sort of huge amount of the budget is really a misconception altogether, and we really struggle in this area to have support,” she said.
“The impact around the world, it will affect us in the end, when you have countries that have so many people that are being displaced, it has a knock-on effect as well.
“So I think, I think it benefits us, actually, to invest.”
Lennox also said that women and girls are “always at the front line, and they are the ones who are so victimised by the violence around them, and it’s terribly (impactful) in a negative way”.
She is hosting a concert at the Royal Albert Hall called Sisters: Annie Lennox and Friends for The Circle, which funds and supports grassroots women-led organisations worldwide from Afghanistan to South Sudan.
She will take to the stage alongside English singer Celeste, Irish singer and flute player Rioghnach Connolly, and British singer-songwriter Nadine Shah in the concert, hosted by radio DJ and presenter Clara Amfo.
Social activist and celebrity photographer Misan Harriman will be a special guest speaker, with more guests revealed on the night.
The fundraising concert, which aims to support women and girls facing violence and injustice across the world, is Lennox’s first headline show in the UK since 2019.
It is on Thursday, two days ahead of International Women’s Day, and during Women’s History Month.
Last week, Sir Keir announced that spending on defence will rise from its current 2.3% share of the economy to 2.5% in 2027, with foreign aid set to go from its current level of 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in 2027.
Lennox has been an ambassador for UNAids, Oxfam, Amnesty International and the British Red Cross.
In 2011, she received the Nobel Woman of Peace Award for her work on HIV/Aids prevention and control, especially for women and children, and was made an OBE in the late Queen’s New Year Honours for her humanitarian work.
In 2017, her most recent social philanthropic work was honoured when she received the George Harrison Global Citizen Award.
Her more than three-decade career has seen Lennox earn an Oscar, Grammy Awards, Brit Awards and Ivor Novello Awards.
