The cut to the foreign aid budget announced this week will “cost lives and create chaos”, the last Labour first minister in Scotland has claimed. Lord Jack McConnell urged Number 10 to rethink the decision taken this week, which will see the international development budget cut from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in an effort to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the move ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump. The hike in defence spending comes in response to the threat of Russia and uncertainty over the US administration’s commitment to European security.
But Lord McConnell – who served as Scotland’s first minister between 2001 and 2007 – criticised the move in an article for HuffPost. “I am not proud that the UK will finance that expansion of our national defence forces by reducing our investment in the lives and opportunities of the poorest people on the planet,” he said.
“To do so without warning or a proper transition will cost lives and create chaos in fragile states that are already too vulnerable to the influence and money of the malign forces we seek to combat. “Schools will close, medical supplies will stop and economic programmes helping the least developed countries stand on their own feet will come to an end. It is bad in principle, but it is also bad strategically.
“The focus on Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine does prioritise the most significant humanitarian emergencies of our time. “But UK withdrawal from everywhere else, and substantial cuts to multilateral programmes that generate billions more from donors and the private sector, will reduce our influence and soft power.
“The world will be less secure and more volatile. And, just weeks after the new Government has launched a new soft power council recognising the importance of this work, our strategic positioning across this new world will be diminished.”. It would be a “false choice” to believe the UK can only invest in either aid or defence as opposed to both, he added, stressing the British people are “ready for tough, fair decisions”.
He added: “I hope the Government will rethink these decisions and decide that both have to go hand in hand. “Then we can engage, defend, influence and invest to be a force for good in this dangerous and uncertain world.”. Announcing the move on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said the UK had to respond to a “generational” threat which would “demand some extremely difficult and painful choices”.
