London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Spending review: Backlash over Rishi Sunak's overseas aid cut

Spending review: Backlash over Rishi Sunak's overseas aid cut

The UK has ditched its policy of spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid to help deal with the coronavirus crisis at home.

A junior minister, Baroness Sugg, has quit over the move, calling it "fundamentally wrong" at a time of "unprecedented" global crisis.

But Chancellor Rishi Sunak said it was hard to "justify" the policy with the UK facing record borrowing.

The cut - to 0.5% of national income - will save about £4bn a year.

Mr Sunak said this would be "temporary" and the 0.7% target would return when finances allowed.

The move has been criticised by some Conservatives, who point out that it was a key promise in the party's 2019 general election manifesto.

Baroness Sugg, who was David Cameron's chief of staff when he was PM, has quit as minister for sustainable development, overseas territories and the Caribbean.

In a letter to Boris Johnson, she said it was "fundamentally wrong" to abandon the foreign aid promise, which "should be kept in the tough times as well as the good".

He responded by praising the minister's "passion and commitment" to her work and her "efforts in support of girls' education in particular".

How does UK overseas aid spending compare with other countries?


Currently, the UK commits 0.7% of national income to overseas aid.

In 2019, it spent £14.6bn ($19.4bn) compared with $34.6bn by the US and $23.8bn by Germany - according to figures from the OECD.

But if you look at overseas aid spending as a percentage of national income, the UK currently beats them and comes out top of the G7 group of the wealthiest nations.

Germany trails closely behind on 0.6%, with France spending 0.44% and the US on 0.16%.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that even after the UK drops to 0.5% next year it "would remain the second-highest aid donor in the G7".

That's right - Germany would take over the lead but France could soon take second place - as it wants to raise its aid contribution to 0.55% of national income in 2022.

Mr Sunak did say the government's "intention is to return to 0.7% when the fiscal situation allows" but he gave no specific timeline.

Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons defence committee, told BBC News the foreign aid cut "will come back and haunt us in the long term".

He said it would reduce British influence, increase poverty and instability - and "allow China and Russia to take advantage" by moving quickly to fill the "vacuum".

In the Commons, Rishi Sunak said the government had to make "tough" choices, as he set out his Spending Review for the year ahead.

He added that 0.5% of national income would be spent on overseas aid in 2021 - the equivalent of £10bn - and the UK would still be the second-highest aid donor in the G7 group of major economies.


Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is a vocal critic of the aid cut


Mr Cameron said the 0.7% promise said "something great" about the UK, adding: "These were brilliant things that we were doing, and I think it's sad that we are standing back from that."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, described Mr Sunak's decision as "shameful and wrong".

"I join others in urging MPs to reject it for the good of the poorest, and the UK's own reputation and interest," he wrote on Twitter.

Oxfam chief executive Danny Sriskandarajah was among dozens of charity bosses to criticise the decision.

He said: "Cutting the UK's lifeline to the world's poorest communities in the midst of a global pandemic will lead to tens of thousands of otherwise preventable deaths."


Baroness Sugg says UK aid spending is a 'source of pride'


And Labour's shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds accused Mr Sunak of turning his back on the world's poorest, adding that it was "in Britain's national interest to lay the foundations for economic growth across the world".

But Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted: "At last we have a Conservative chancellor that understands Conservative voters on foreign aid."

And Conservative MP Philip Davies said people in the "real world" will back the cut.

"I suspect that the vast majority of the British public won't be asking why has he cut so much, they will probably be asking why are we still spending so much," he added.

Former Conservative Prime Ministers Sir John Major and his Labour successor Tony Blair were among those calling for the 0.7% target to be kept.

It could also face opposition from some Tory MPs, including former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, when the Commons votes on it.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×