Labour MPs warn aid budget cuts could allow greater role for Russia and China
Concerns were raised during a Commons debate despite a welcome for the move to increase defence spending.
Labour MPs have warned aid budget cuts could result in Britain’s departure from the world stage, with Russia and China filling the void.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was also accused of “taking the axe” to Britain’s “most effective tool for reducing global conflicts” by Labour’s Sarah Champion, who chairs the International Development Committee.
While several MPs welcomed the Government’s decision to increase defence spending to 2.5% of the size of the economy from April 2027, ministers faced calls to reconsider the plan to achieve this by slashing development assistance aid from its current level of 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% in 2027.
Speaking during an estimates day debate, Ms Champion 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 result 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.”
Ms Champion also said a “scandalously large amount” of official development assistance (ODA) has 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.
Labour’s Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “Under this Government we are taking a lead again, so the question is, are we going to step up to this challenge? Which we’re more than capable of doing, but we can’t just do it on two Chewits, a button and a postage stamp.”
She added: “I am concerned these ODA cuts won’t be the last of these challenges, there are also rumours that the Foreign Office will, on top of that, be expecting cuts of between 2 and 11%. In that scenario, it would be selling its businesses, its buildings, will the embassies shrink?”
Dame Emily said she hopes there will be an “enormous amount of work” being done into the details of the cuts, adding: “I fear we may be looking back at this time and we may say to ourselves, this is when Britain left the world and yet it really should be the time when we’re able to say Britain is back, and we’re back as a force for good.”
Conservative former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said: “Who is it who will fill the gap in all of this? It will be China and Russia. And of course it will be music to the ears of the many terrorist organisations which exist across Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) said UK aid “makes the world safer and it saves lives”, noting: “Cutting the aid budget will undercut our ability to build global partnerships and alliances.
“When the UK helps countries to adjust to climate change, to grow and to prosper, we build our relationships and our influence. When countries like ours withdraw, China and Russia stand ready to step in.”
Labour MP Blair McDougall (East Renfrewshire), who worked in the aid sector for 10 years, questioned what the UK’s “offer to the global south” is now if it is no longer a “development superpower”.
He said: “We know what Russia’s offer is, it’s blood for gold, they will come and kill your enemies with mercenaries for you and take precious minerals out of your country. We know what it is for China, it’s infrastructure in return for debt that keeps you in their power.
“We can’t offer violence, we can’t demand subservience, it seems to me for us it’s values but values need vehicles to be projected.”
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said: “Our intent is to get back to 0.7% of GNI as soon as the fiscal circumstances allow and the Prime Minister has been very, very clear about that.”
He later added: “We will continue to play a key role, doing everything we can to move towards rebuilding our capacity and remain committed to working in Sudan, in Ukraine, in Gaza, on tackling climate change, on supporting multinational efforts on global health and challenges like vaccination, of course our commitments to the Overseas Territories, too.
“And I have to really level with the House, and I hope people can see and feel this, but in this dangerous new era, the defence and national security of this country must come first.
“This is not the 1990s. This is not even 2005.
“And I cannot look at what I do every day or indeed other ministers look at every day and not recognise that we have to respond differently to the very, very serious threats facing this country, our continent and the world.”
