Ed Miliband led a Cabinet revolt against Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to slash the UK’s aid budget, it has emerged,
The Prime Minister made the dramatic announcement that aid will be cut from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%, to pay for a £13.4bn increase in defence.
It took many of Sir Keir’s government colleagues by surprise and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, one of the Prime Minister’s closest political allies, is said to have objected.
According to the Guardian, Mr Miliband was among the ministers who expressed worry at the impact of the aid cut during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The Times also reports that Development Minister Anneliese Dodds was left “on the floor” when full details of the cut were explained to her for the first time on Monday.
Sir Keir said he was sorry to cut aid spending, insisting it was “not an announcement that I am happy to make”. However he defended the decision, saying: “At times like this, the defence and security of the British people must always come first. That is the No. 1 priority of this Government.”
The increase in defence is a result of fears that European countries including the UK must do more to protect themselves from the prospect of Russian aggression.
But some Conservatives are also worried about the cut to aid spending including former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who told the Prime Minister: “Defence and security must come first, but he does have choices about how he funds that important uplift. In the last Parliament, he and I voted together against balancing the books on the backs of the poorest people in the world.”
The Prime Minister will hope the promise to increase defence spending to a 2.5% share of the economy from April 2027 helps persuade US President Donald Trump that European nations are serious about the security of their continent.
Sir Keir wants to act as a bridge between the US and European continental allies, and said he had been having “really intense discussions with our European partners, with Nato, with Ukraine, and obviously with US teams as well”.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday that the EU was formed to “screw the United States” and that he was planning 25% tariffs on goods from the bloc.
Mr Zelensky and European leaders will meet for talks hosted by Sir Keir on Sunday following separate White House visits by both the Prime Minister and Ukrainian president.
But Ukraine and Mr Trump’s commitment to the Nato alliance are not the only issues which could lead to difficult conversations between the two leaders at the White House.
The looming imposition of US tariffs on imports of British steel could also be a tricky topic.
