Ill-judged decision by Keir Starmer to cut overseas aid is a threat to peace - Yorkshire Post Letters
From: Michael McGowan, Former Labour MEP for Leeds, President of the Development Committee, European Parliament, Leeds.
Leaders who cut overseas aid should consider their positions. The decision of Keir Starmer to trash overseas aid is shocking and a disgrace.
To require the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world to pay for the biggest defence increases in the West since the second world war is shameful.
These savage cuts will cause more deaths and suffering and are counter productive as poverty and inequality cause conflict and threaten world peace.
The Labour Minister for Overseas Development, Anneliese Dodds, usually a Starmer supporter, resigned and made clear to Starmer she could not support his decision. She said it is a denial of the principles and values of the Labour Party.
And the Labour Chair of the Development Select Committee of The House of Commons, Sarah Champion, also opposed the cuts and says they are counter productive and will lead to more conflict and wars.
The UK cuts in overseas aid rapidly followed the decision of US President Trump to slash US aid which accounts for almost three quarters of global overseas aid. The efforts by Keir Starmer to please the US president prior to his meeting at the White House did not help the poor of the planet.
The United Kingdom was a world leader in achieving the UN target 0.7 per cent of national income on international aid. This was reduced to 0.5 per cent by Boris Johnson and now by Keir Starmer to 0.3 per cent by 2027, half of which is not even spent overseas but on housing asylum seekers in this country.
The cruel and ill judged decision by Keir Starmer to cut overseas aid is a threat to peace and demonstrates a lack of political leadership. And leaders who punish the poorest and most vulnerable and cause more global conflict should consider their positions.