PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for a massive boost to military spending funded by slashing overseas aid was slammed as “grotesquely awful” by peace campaigners today.
He faced a wave of opposition after telling MPs that arms spending is to rise by more than £13 billion a year by 2027, with the aim of a further £30bn-plus hike in the next parliament.
The first tranche of this new arms race is to be funded by a huge cut to the overseas development budget, from 0.5 per cent of GDP to just 0.3 per cent, all justified by the three-year-old Ukraine war.
…
Save the Children UK chief executive Moazzam Malik said: “We are stunned by this decision to cut the aid budget in order to increase military spending.
“It is a betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable children and the UK’s national interest.”
And Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now called it “a day of shame for Britain.”
He added: “Starmer’s announcement today is politics at its most base.
“To appease Trump, he will cut aid to its lowest level in a generation, forcing the poorest to pay so he can push taxpayer money into the coffers of arms corporations.”
…
