The British public want spending on overseas aid to be based on British national interests, not those of its international allies, a new poll suggests. A majority of those surveyed said any aid given would need to offer domestic incentives such as boosting the UK economy or protection from pandemics.
The poll has been published as international development minister Anneliese Dodds quit her role on Friday over the Government’s decision to cut overseas aid to fund a boost to defence spending. Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced an increase to 2.5% of GDP for defence spending by 2027 would be funded by slashing development assistance aid from its current level of 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3%.
An online survey by More in Common of more than 4,000 adults from across the country was taken to understand their views on UK government spending on official development assistance. It found that 84% of people thought the UK should not follow the lead of the US and cut overseas aid funding for women and girls.
More than half of those surveyed thought that aid spending was worthwhile if it helped to boost the UK economy (58%) and protect national security (55%) respectively, while almost two thirds (63%) thought that sending aid to poorer countries was worthwhile if it helps protect the UK against pandemics like Covid-19 or bird flu.
It also revealed more than half of the British public (55%) supported the UK giving military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The poll was conducted between January 31 and February 6. Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, who was international development secretary under David Cameron, said: “The Government’s decision to cut aid to unprecedentedly low levels is short-sighted and damaging.
“Balancing the books on the backs of the poorest people in the world isn’t just wrong, it also makes the UK weaker and less secure. “In taking this decision, the Government risks cutting off its nose to spite its face. “While there is an unanswerable case for increasing defence spending, the evidence shows that doing this at the expense of international aid increases health and security risks to the UK in the long run.”.
Mr Mitchell said Ms Dodds had done the “right thing” by leaving her Cabinet role on Friday. Ms Dodds warned that the move would affect the UK’s support for Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine and could lead to the UK being shut out of multilateral bodies. Conleth Burns, associate director at More in Common, said: “The British public want their aid to be driven by what’s best for the national interest – whether that’s the economy or our national security.
