In April 2023, conflict erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. A vicious power struggle between the Sudanese army and an outsider paramilitary group displaced millions of people. Famine conditions and food shortages have left millions at risk of starvation. Meanwhile, reports of genocide have emerged in the Darfur region, while women and girls are frequent victims of horrific sexual violence.

Sudan is also a recipient of over £100m in British aid. Last month, Keir Starmer cut this. The Labour Prime Minister slashed funding ring-fenced to alleviate global poverty and provide sanitation, education, and healthcare to the world’s poorest people. I thought Labour stood for social justice – for global equality and human rights. But make no mistake, this decision will kill people. Some of the world’s most deprived people will die without the aid they would otherwise have received.

“I thought Labour stood for social justice”

International development aid goes to Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza. It goes to tackling violence and systemic misogyny against women and girls, it helps combat climate change, and it funds global health schemes. And whilst international development spending may seem like an abstract policy, affecting far away people in far away places, cutting aid to low income countries has a real term impact on us.

The former US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said that “if you don’t fully fund the State Department, I need to buy more ammunition.” In other words, if you don’t spend money on foreign policy, then you better start arming for war. Because international aid spending promotes global stability and helps prevent conflict. A £13bn decrease in aid spent overseas will see developing states become poorer and more conflict-prone, a move that will encourage regional instability and terrorism.

Labour may argue that they are being pragmatic, that they’re cutting foreign aid to increase defence spending, but the two are not mutually exclusive. International development and global peace are intimately tied, and it is foolish and plainly immoral to cut one to fund another.

Indeed, in a globalised world, we must acknowledge that our policy decisions have global consequences. The right will decry the problem of immigration whilst refusing to address its root causes, as figures like Nigel Farage will demand cuts to international development funds that fight the very problems that lead to mass migration. If we do not help tackle the issues that lead to immigration, then those issues will wash up on our shores whether we like it or not. Because if you want to prevent people coming to the country on small boats, then maybe you should solve the problems that made them leave their countries in the first place.

And within these countries, reducing aid spending erodes any influence we may still have. With China already investing billions in developing countries through the Belt and Road initiative, it is clear that where we withdraw funding, China and Russia will fill the gaps. Starmer is vacating our seat at the table in their favour, he is withdrawing funding that helps us foster new relationships and build support on the world stage. Instead of extending our soft power through overseas aid, Keir Starmer is ready to willingly surrender it.

“Britain has the capacity to be a benevolent, influential country on the global stage”

In fact, not only is Starmer surrendering our global influence, but he has weaponised development funding specifically to please Donald Trump. By announcing funding cuts just days before he flew to Washington, Starmer used the slashing of the aid budget as a diplomatic tool. The cuts to foreign aid serve as a calculated parallel to the Trump administration’s own slashing of US AID, which left aid development workers reeling. Astonishingly, the Labour government is playing right into Trump’s hands.

But Trump is not who we are as a country. We are not isolationist, nor are we uncaring. Britain has the capacity to be a benevolent, influential country on the global stage. We already have the experience and the expertise to extend our power abroad through creating lasting change in developing countries. Because international development is good for us. Foreign aid plays a strategic role in addressing issues like conflict, disease, and mass migration – issues that lead to immigration problems and costly wars for taxpayers.

In an interconnected world, you cannot solve problems at home if you do not have a global outlook. So. we have a choice. We can isolate ourselves on the world stage, making ourselves poorer and weaker; or we can be world leaders, making longer term decisions for the voters of the future. But ultimately, withdrawing foreign aid from some of the world’s most deprived communities means literally taking away food from starving children. Beyond any benefit to the UK, foreign aid saves lives.

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