There is some consensus that the government needs to increase spending on defence in the light of the current dangerous situation in Ukraine, but should that be at the expense of the foreign aid budget?
Annelise Dodds recently resigned as the minister for international development over plans to cut foreign aid from the current level of 0.5 per cent of total GDP to 0.3 per cent in 2027. Much of it will be diverted to fund increases in defence spending. There have been claims by commentators that Dodds wasn’t aware of the cuts until prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced it.
The foreign aid cuts were understandibly criticised by several commentators, opposition politicians, and even some Labour MPs, who were angry at the way Dodds had been treated by Starmer. What is more surprising is that many other ministers have not done the same thing by resigning their posts as an act of principle.
I’ll bet the situation will get worse for the government as chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to be planning both fresh tax rises and public spending cuts in the forthcoming budget. Let’s be honest, the reductions in the foreign aid budget are an easy target for a government which continues to insist of imposing fiscal discipline at a time when extra public spending will eventually be needed to help keep the country going in the event of such hostilities (short of nuclear war, of course).