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Thursday March 19 2026

By Eleanor Langford

Political Reporter at The i Paper and author of Politics Unwrapped

Good evening and welcome to Thursday’s Politics Unwrapped.

For decades, Britain has been spending billions of pounds every year helping some of the world’s poorest countries. But that spending is being cut to its lowest level since 1999. 

The Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, set out on Thursday exactly where British aid will now go, and crucially, where it won’t. 

Some countries will see their funding protected. Others face losing direct support almost entirely.

In 2024, Britain spent £14.1bn on international aid. By 2027/28, that will fall to around £9.2bn — a reduction of almost £5bn a year.

All this is being done to help pay for plans to boost the UK’s defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027.

Let’s take a look at what is changing — and why it matters.

But first, here are our other key political stories from today:

• Deadly meningitis strain may be more infectious than feared
• ‘Load of b******s’: Labour Red Wall MPs angered by Rayner’s migration attack
• All the signs that Labour wants to undo Brexit
• Blackouts and rationing: This is what happens if the UK runs out of gas
• More mortgage rate hikes to come this week as 5 per cent inflation warning issued

The aid cuts have been in the pipeline for over a year — but Thursday is when the details finally became clear.

Last year, Sir Keir Starmer announced that Britain’s overseas aid budget would be cut from 0.5 per cent of gross national income — a measure of the country’s total earnings — to 0.3 per cent by 2027. 

That might sound like a small shift in numbers, but in cash terms it is enormous.

At 0.3 per cent, the total aid budget will be worth around £9.2bn a year — the lowest in cash terms since 2012. Had it stayed at 0.5 per cent, it would have reached £15.4bn. 

The cuts are being phased in gradually. The budget drops to 0.48 per cent this financial year, then 0.37 per cent in 2026/27, reaching 0.3 per cent in 2027/28.

There is no commitment to return to 0.7 per cent within this Parliament, which runs until 2029. The Government says it will return to that level “when fiscal circumstances allow” — a condition with no fixed timeline attached.

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The Government announced in February 2025 that it would cut Britain’s overseas aid budget by 40 per cent — the largest reduction in the budget’s history — to free up money for defence spending.

Starmer said at the time that the national security of the country “must always come first”. 

“This investment [in defence] can only be funded through hard choices… I want to be clear – this is not an announcement I am happy to make,” he said.

The Government wants to raise military spending to 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of the size of the economy – by 2027, reaching 2.6 per cent when intelligence services are included, with a longer-term ambition of 3 per cent. 

The aid cuts are the main way it is paying for that — redirecting £500m to defence this year, rising to £4.8bn in 2026/27 and £6.5bn in 2027/28 as the aid reductions deepen.

Britain is not alone in this shift. France, Germany and other major donors have also reviewed or reduced their aid budgets in recent years, amid broader pressure from the US for European allies to take greater responsibility for their own defence.

Cooper confirmed that Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Palestine will have their funding fully protected. 

Lebanon has also been added to that list — a decision Cooper said she took “this week”. The country has faced a humanitarian crisis following Israeli military action against Hezbollah, with the UK’s aid programme there focused on life-saving support and disaster preparedness.

Programmes supporting women and girls are also being protected, with Cooper committing that at least 90 per cent of bilateral aid programmes will contribute to gender equality by 2030. Funding for the BBC World Service is being increased by £11m a year.

On multilateral spending — money pooled through international organisations — the Government is increasing its share. 

That includes a 40 per cent increase in its contribution to the World Bank’s International Development Association, and a £650m pledge to the African Development Fund.

The attack on RAF Akrotiri revealed a very uncomfortable truth, writes Alicia Kearns. Read here.

For many countries, direct grants are ending — though support through international organisations continues.

The steepest reductions are in bilateral aid — money Britain sends directly to individual countries. The Government is withdrawing from traditional bilateral funding for G20 nations.

Countries including Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan will no longer receive direct grant funding, though Cooper said they remain “humanitarian priorities” and will continue to receive support through multilateral programmes. 

Pakistan and Mozambique will also see direct grant funding “significantly reduced”, with the Government shifting instead to investment partnerships through British International Investment.

Climate finance is confirmed at around £6bn over three years — roughly £2bn a year, down from £2.3bn under the previous arrangement. 

A previous £3bn ring fence for nature and forest projects has been scrapped, replaced by a broader commitment to balance spending between mitigation, adaptation and nature.

Funding to the Pandemic Fund and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is ending, with the Government saying it will pursue those objectives through other investments.

The direct impact on your finances is limited — but the indirect consequences are worth understanding.

Your tax money has funded this spending for decades. Under Tony Blair, Britain enshrined in law a commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on overseas aid — a target David Cameron’s Conservative government also kept. 

Rishi Sunak reduced it to 0.5 per cent after the Covid-19 pandemic. It is now heading to 0.3 per cent, the lowest share since 1999.

There is also a practical dimension. Gareth Thomas, the Labour MP for Harrow West and a former international development minister, warned the cuts risk creating “opportunities for regimes who don’t share our values”. 

Dr Beccy Cooper, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health Security, said diseases would “spread faster and further” without investment in overseas health systems.

But, on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary defended the measures. She said the Government had “looked hard at what we prioritise and how we work, using the challenge of a reduced budget to find solutions that increase impact, focusing on what secures best value for money for taxpayers”.

Should the Government prioritise foreign aid or defence?

In the last edition I asked if you’re worried about the meningitis outbreak. 26 per cent said yes, 51 per cent said no and 23 per cent weren’t sure.

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Author: North London