The Latest Breaking News from Foreign Aid

IN FOCUS: The evidence shows international aid – when spent correctly – can bring tremendous benefits and save millions of lives, writes expert and author Stefan Dercon. But if helping people cope with deprivation won’t convince the Maga crowd, advocates of aid spending will have to try a different argument

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to slash foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP has raised eyebrows within his own party.

France has set up a commission to assess the impact and transparency of its development aid, following allegations by the far right that taxpayers' money is being squandered overseas – echoing similar claims by the United States administration, which has frozen its foreign aid programmes.

BACK in July 2021, Keir Starmer – then leader of the opposition – stood at the despatch box lamenting a Tory plan to slash the UK’s foreign…