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.
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.
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”.
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”.
“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.
