Keir Starmer is planning drastic cuts to Britain’s international aid budget to help pay for a boost to defence spending, the Guardian has been told, as European nations attempt to fill the gap left by Donald Trump on Ukraine.
Sources told the Guardian that Starmer had chosen to reduce the aid budget, perhaps by as much as half, in order to help boost military capability after the new US administration said it was withdrawing its own support from Ukraine.
Peter Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to the US, has been urging Starmer to set a firm timeline for when the UK will increase its defence spending from 2.3% of GDP ahead of his trip to Washington this week.
Labour had promised to raise the aid budget from 0.5% to 0.7% when “fiscal conditions allow”, but in recent weeks officials have begun to look at cutting it instead as a way to help pay for the planned increase in defence spending.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, told the Guardian earlier this month that Donald Trump’s plans to make dramatic cuts to the US’s international aid budget could be a “big strategic mistake” that allows China to step in and further its global influence.
