Keir Starmer to carry out largest cut to UK overseas aid in history

49 comments

1. *Kier Starmer prioritizes UK defence over foreign aid – fixed it for you

2. I haven’t been keeping in the media circus loop on this one. Have The Daily Mail and Telegraph turned this into a bad thing yet?

   It always seems to be the case, “we want x” and as soon as a party that isn’t theirs does it, it is a bad thing suddenly.

3. We plenty of foreign aid at home. Record numbers actually.

4. Cut deeper.

   We and the rest of the west have sent trillions in foreign aid for no gain, end the grift and spend it on another aircraft carrier.

5. My most right wing opinion (I am in general centre left) is that we shouldn’t be giving a penny in overseas aid while we have a homelessness crisis literally in this country.

6. Right now a strong military is the best form of overseas aid we can offer our allies.

7. We keep hearing about overseas aid but no details as to exactly what it’s spent on and those receiving it.

8. Considering what the US is doing to international politics we probably need it. But I hoe the oversight is there. There’s not point in putting nor money into defense if it disappears into blackholes.

9. There’s no negative to boosting defence spending. Time for Europe to wake up. We give so much to other nations. Time to protect ourself a little more.

10. Any cuts anywhere will almost certainly provoke howls of protest. But a govt has to be able to cut. We shouldn’t be giving out money for ever and ever.

11. Sometimes aid begins at home. In the age of a cost of living crisis and Putin / Trump causing world instibility we need to spend on our country first.

12. It saddens me that I can’t fault his decision.

    The world has become a colder and crueller place these last few years and we must adapt.

13. I mean, what else is he to do. The British armed forces are woefully underfunded, which might have been alright in the before times, but now, a lacklustre defence budget looks like a real problem.

    And what to cut? Things the British public really care about? Like the already broken NHS?

    Kinda had to be foreign aid sadly.

14. Kinda has to be done to help Ukraine et al. So in a way it is foreign aid. 🤷‍♂️

15. Unfortunately in this day and age hard power is what counts. I have no doubt as to the value of foreign aid, however if the choice is between it and defence then I choose the latter.

    Russians aren’t going to back down because we’re funding granaries and medical centres in Burundi.

16. Stop sending money to Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
    Yep. Gets my vote.

17. Let’s turn that aid into cost of living relief for residents.

18. Prepare for the procurement of loads of useless vehicles and equipment.

19. Were prepping for war and need to be in a realistic place to get into a war with Russia

    We’d love to help everyone even more so than we did previously, but we cant help anyone if we have our pants pulled down in a conflict.

    The political and military situation has changed beyond anyone’s imagination, it’s not done to spite or to deny or exclude anyone.

    The projection of power has changed and now we need bullets.

20. I believe many people in the country support reducing the amount of money sent abroad. Even as a liberal, I am against allocating significant funds overseas when so many pressing issues exist at home right now.

    Moreover, a considerable portion of foreign aid is squandered on consultants, committees, and ineffective charities, resulting in insufficient real-world impact. I recall Rory on This Is Politics discussing an instance where tens of thousands of pounds were spent on just four buckets intended for use as toilets in an African village—with approximately £9,900 allocated solely for planning and consulting. In fact, the total expenditure may have even exceeded £100,000, I can’t remember the details, but it all seemed like a complete racquet and very dodgy.

21. They won’t be complaining if Russia come knocking and this increase in spend means we aren’t steam rolled over. Christ people are acting as though all foreign aid has been pulled, it’s a small part to fund OUR OWN COUNTRIES DEFENCE?! Like it or not the world isn’t so peaceful anymore, we cannot sit back and “wait and see” anymore.

22. This is probably a decision both sides of the Political spectrum would agree is correct given the current climate. Saying that, I’m sure the shitrags will find some way to make it look bad, you know, cus Labour.

23. The first thing he’s done that I like. Just wish it went down to 0.0% instead of 0.3% (and that it potentially isn’t going towards his treasonous Chagos surrender).

24. 1 , it’s just common sense..so we get a bollocking ever 2-3 years… and we say sorry .. and we’ll look at it again later.
    We’d still get a bollocking anyway no matter what we do ….

25. Absolutely the right decision.

    We wouldn’t be able to provide foreign aid if the UK no longer exists!

26. Aid is very important both morally and pragmatically, but in the current climate reallocating funds towards defence is 100% the correct decision.

27. Probably the best thing to come out of a Labour government since the creation of the NHS.

    Well done Kier.

28. This has been contentious for decades. It’s possible for individuals and organizations to donate to the most impactful charities. That can be done through Givewell. High impact. Government needs to prioritize defense and grow the economy so we can all be generous. 

29. Look after your own Country first. About time this has happened. also stop the boats that will save a few quid !

30. Good are public services are declining NHS has gone to the crapper. Time to start sorting out our own first.

31. This is great news, Labour making some good progress lately

32. Good news , it’s about time – we ( the uk ) need to get our own house in order before things get any worse 👍

33. I hope those poor Indians going to space will be OK without our aid 

34. The Tories and the Farages should be happy no?

    What about the Murdoch crap media?

35. Shit title, funds for overseas aid is being diverted to boosting our military, which is in much more dire need of funding

36. I will repeat what I said in another thread. I’m in full support of cutting our aid to places like India. Between 2016 and 2021, we spent £2.3 billion on foreign aid to India. This is a country that has a higher GDP than us ffs. The main argument in support of this spending is soft power/influence, but India has remained consistent on staying neutral in international politics, and they do whatever is best for themselves. They even abstained from the UN vote on condemning Russia’s invasion. It has been a complete waste of money and we shouldn’t be giving them any more.

37. Defence contractors laughing all the way to the bank.

    We will be lining up to get a piece of this pie.

38. I’m happy to get a defence increase, I’m very disappointed it had to come at the expense of foreign aid. I would rather they close more tax loopholes for corporate fudgery.

39. Cuts foreign aid, diverts money to defence spending, increases defence contracts and defence work… The money stays in the UK while paying people to do it… This is a simple way to increase your growth… Temporarily, looks great on paper, nice and simple and makes them look like they know what they’re doing 🙈

40. Foreign aid just props up the Charitable Industrial Complex. As Peter Buffet clearly explained in his 2013 New York Times op-ed most aid just treats symptoms without bringing about change that’s before we even get to dealing with corruption. Then there’s the thousands of Western jobs that are dependent upon the Charitable Industrial Complex that do nothing to help the people meant to receive the aid.

    We actually need to change how projects are delivered so the measure of success is that in X years time the Foreign Aid budget is reduced by Y amount because of systemic changes we’ve achieved.

41. I trust that this reprioritisation is based on intelligence.

42. I hope he also downsized all that free money he is giving away to useless wars.

    Foreign aid actually helps to reduce costs at home by reducing factors in ‘home’ countries that lead to immigration to the UK. Can see this becoming an issue as we saw with Borris.

    When will see see the mega rich, all those new billionaires, since covid, start to get taxed appropriately to pay for things like health and defence.

43. So there’s at least one thing he listened to voters about.

44. It seems the Western world is looking inward as it realizes that it can’t influence the world as much as it used to. A new multi-polar world is coming to fruition.

45. Tbh I’d rather my tax money was spent protecting us at home than on other countries. If there’s a humanitarian crisis then send them money, but we shouldn’t be propping up other countries. And with the world the way it is rn we need to protect ourselves again

46. It’s disappointing that it’s come to this but Russia does represent an existential threat and not only is the USA not going to help us if they attack, they might even fight alongside them. No-one thinks war is coming to them until it does, every major war in the past century was preceded by a large number of people saying it was all scaremongering and a fuss over nothing, even Ukraine didn’t believe they were going to be attacked despite the huge buildup of Russian troops on their border. The Tories cut foreign aid to appease racists because they had no understanding of the detrimental effect on our soft power but sadly we’re moving into a world in which hard power will be more important.

47. Foreign aid generally involves poor people in rich countries sending their tax money to rich people in poor countries, decreasing our large contributions to this exercise in favour of much-neglected national defence is a rare sensible move. However, tinkering around the margins and making a 0.2% increase whilst acting like this is some sort of drastic action is typical of the managerial bureaucrats that have governed our country for so long, we need to go further and faster.

48. WW3 is on the horizon. I think it’s wise to defend ourselves.

49. Low key i think he is doing a really good job but everyone around me complains about him.

    From what i read he is:
    1. Cutting foreign aid in favour of supporting defense.
    2. Handling trumps, elons, putin insanity fairly well & firmly supporting Ukraine.
    3. Supporting renewable energy like wind, nuclear & solar power.
    4. Hopefully getting rid of hereditary lords
    5. Seemingly supporting the NHS more than the last government (thou not hard)
    6. Has deported more illegal immigrants in a couple months than the torys did in a year iirc.

    The only real negative i have so far is that he labled upset folk regarding the dance hall knife attack as “far right” which imo was a mistake.

    I didn’t vote last election but if it seemingly keeps be fairly sensible id happily vote labour next election.

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