Keir Starmer’s decision this week to slash Britain’s overseas aid budget and divert to defence spending will take UK aid to developing countries to its lowest level in a generation. It will almost halve the already diminished aid pot, from 0.58% of national income to 0.3%. In 2023, the total aid spend was £15.34bn, almost a third of which was spent on supporting and housing refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
The last time Britain’s aid contribution dropped below 0.3% was a quarter of a century ago, in 1999. Starmer’s move raised concerns among cabinet ministers, who feared it risked reducing soft power and made migration more likely, and outraged humanitarians and aid agencies who warned of a “devastating” impact on the world’s poorest.
