‘This will cost lives’: cuts to UK aid budget condemned as ‘betrayal’ by international development groups

An Aids patient holds life-saving anti-retroviral medication in Zambia, southern Africa. Photograph: Jake Lyell/Alamy

Keir Starmer promised at the UN last September that the UK would “be a leading contributor to development”. Just five months later few expected an announcement that could result in UK aid spending falling to its lowest level this century.

Overseas development aid will fall from 0.5% of the UK’s gross national income to 0.3% – a cut of about £6bn – in order to pay for increased defence spending.