Starmer can only hope slashing aid to boost defence wins Trump’s favour

<p>PM’s Washington trip clear impetus for abrupt news of budget switch to meet defence commitment by 2027</p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/25/starmer-planning-big-cuts-to-aid-budget-to-boost-defence-spending-say-sources">Starmer announces big cut to UK aid budget to boost defence spending</a></strong></li></ul><p>Before Keir Starmer’s meeting with Donald Trump on Thursday, the prime minister thought it necessary to offer the president a gift. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/25/starmer-planning-big-cuts-to-aid-budget-to-boost-defence-spending-say-sources">Britain’s defence spending will increase by 0.17 percentage points to 2.5% of GDP</a> by April 2027, he told MPs in a hastily arranged Commons statement. The money, he added, would be taken directly from the overseas aid budget, whose level will be cut by nearly half to 0.3%.</p><p>The last measure is a remarkable turn for a Labour government. Uncomfortably, it comes at a time when Donald Trump wants to shut down perhaps the entire $40bn US aid budget – and at a stroke <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/25/starmer-cuts-to-uk-aid-budget-defence-trump-cruel-and-shameful-say-experts">eliminates a signature commitment from the Blair-Brown years</a>. It was back in 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister, that Labour first committed to increasing aid spending to 0.7% of GDP.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/25/starmer-can-only-hope-aid-grab-raid-to-lift-defence-budget-wins-trumps-favour">Continue reading...</a>