\n<\/p>\n
Plans by Reform UK to slash the aid budget by 90% would not cover existing contributions to global bodies such as the UN and World Bank, shredding Britain\u2019s international influence and risking its standing within those organisations, charities and other parties have warned.<\/p>\n
Under cuts announced by Nigel Farage in November, overseas aid would be capped at \u00a31bn a year, or about 0.03% of GDP. Keir Starmer\u2019s government is already set to reduce aid from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3% by 2027, but even that lower proportion would still amount to \u00a39bn a year.<\/p>\n
If a Reform government attempted to cut aid to \u00a31bn, it would involve cutting back existing multi-year commitments to organisations, as well as global efforts connected to vaccinations and other health initiatives.<\/p>\n
Multilateral overseas aid totalled \u00a32.8bn in 2024, the most recent year for which detailed figures are available.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s existing commitments to the UN, the World Bank\u2019s International Development Association, the Gavi vaccination alliance and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria total more than \u00a31.6bn a year.<\/p>\n
Cutting those immediately would be difficult, with most settlements agreed over several years. Even if the total could be brought down to \u00a31bn, there would be no funding left to respond to new natural disasters such as Hurricane Melissa, which devastated Jamaica in October.<\/p>\n
Gideon Rabinowitz, the director of policy at Bond, the umbrella group for development NGOs, said a \u00a31bn limit would \u201cdrastically reduce the UK government\u2019s capacity to play a role in the global fight against disease, poverty and inequality\u201d, and leave no scope to help with future disasters and conflicts.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cFurther cuts would also mean failing to honour our existing commitments to international institutions, damaging the UK\u2019s reputation as a reliable global partner and undermining its presence in key decision-making forums.<\/p>\n
\u201cA budget of \u00a31bn would put UK aid below that of Russia and China, weakening our own national interests whilst leaving opportunity for other states to gain influence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabinowitz said the UK had already cut back its contributions to Gavi and the Global Fund, which was expected to cause hundreds of thousands of otherwise-preventable deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of yet further reduction to UK pledges such as this would be unconscionable. This approach does not align with the values of the British public who want to see the UK play their part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A Labour party spokesperson called Reform\u2019s aid policy \u201cback-of-a-fag-packet politics\u201d.<\/p>\n
They said: \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t even cover the UK\u2019s existing commitments, would leave nothing for future crises, and risks Britain losing influence and seats at the table. This is not tough decision making \u2013 it\u2019s reckless and unserious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monica Harding, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 international development spokesperson, said even existing cuts to aid had resulted in a loss of UK influence and stalled progress in global health.<\/p>\n
Further reductions, she said, showed \u201ca complete ignorance of how our influence works overseas\u201d. She said: \u201cIt would hollow out our diplomatic presence across Africa and Asia, affecting partnerships and economic opportunities, and our influence globally, including in international institutions like the UN, World Bank and IMF, would collapse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would leave us all poorer, less secure and less safe \u2013 with Britain as an isolated and declining power. Their policy is the very opposite of patriotic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zia Yusuf, Reform\u2019s head of policy, said the \u00a31bn limit would not threaten the UK\u2019s place on any multilateral organisation, and would leave sufficient money for aid to Ukraine and a fund for \u201cgenuine disaster relief\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cTory and Labour governments have poured eye-watering sums into wasteful foreign aid projects for decades. The Conservatives spent \u00a3230bn in real terms on foreign aid \u2013 is Britain more or less powerful on the world stage than in 2010?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tories and Labour have abused the generosity of the British taxpayer to virtue signal. A Nigel Farage government will finally put British citizens and taxpayers first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Plans by Reform UK to slash the aid budget by 90% would not cover existing contributions to global bodies such as the UN and World Bank, shredding Britain\u2019s international influence and risking its standing within those organisations, charities and other parties have warned. Under cuts announced by Nigel Farage in November, overseas aid would be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[4564,1122,1339,2369,2301,2170,531,1436,838,1070,1952],"class_list":{"0":"post-38854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-1bn","9":"tag-aid","10":"tag-cap","11":"tag-critics","12":"tag-damage","13":"tag-influence","14":"tag-international","15":"tag-plan","16":"tag-reform","17":"tag-uks","18":"tag-warn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}