British diplomats have been instructed to find at least 50% cuts in UK overseas aid in the next six weeks in advance of the next financial year, the Labour party has said.
Sarah Champion, the chair of parliament’s international development select committee, said: “Our ambassadors have today been instructed by the Foreign Office to cut 50-70% from the aid budget.”
Describing the speed of the planned cuts as catastrophic, she added: “There is no doubt that lives will be lost as a consequence and our global standing as humanitarians destroyed. Welcome to day 26 of global Britain.”
The Foreign Office is due to make a written statement setting out its aid spending plans. So far officials have been more forthcoming about the parts of the budget that will be protected than those that will have to be cut. The current foreign aid budget is approximately £15bn.
The Labour claim has come before the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, appears in front of the international development select committee for the first time since the Department of International Development merged with the Foreign Office to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Critics have described the merger as, in effect, a takeover of the aid budget.
The merger, completed at speed last autumn, has coincided with a £5bn cut in the overseas aid budget this year, caused by the collapse in annual growth as a result of the Covid crisis. The annual UK aid budget is currently legally set at 0.7% of gross national income.
But the Foreign Office announced before the integrated defence and foreign policy review that the aid budget would be cut from 0.7% to 0.5%, a reduction that UK legislation allows so long as it is temporary.
Ministers have said they will introduce legislation to allow a more long-term cut to 0.5%, but know they are likely to face a backbench rebellion over the issue, including from the former prime minister Theresa May and the former former aid minister Andrew Mitchell.
The aid committee has been told by campaigners that the effect of the slowdown in growth will mean a long-term cumulative cut in aid spending. Even if 0.7% was maintained, the UK would face a cumulative cut in the aid budget of about £5.2bn from 2020-25. The additional cut to 0.5 % will mean the cumulative cut from the aid budget will be likely to lead to about £25bn-£30bn being lost by 2025.
Ministers are likely to argue that they are being upfront with parliament by publishing the details of the cuts on the day that Raab is scrutinised by the international development committee.
Ministers are broadly confident the aid cuts are politically popular at a time of domestic belt-tightening, and the overall UK aid budget remains more than many G7 competitors.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.