Cutting aid for disease fund would be moral failure, Labour MPs tell Starmer

UK expected to reduce contribution to Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria by 20%

A group of seven Labour MPs who served as ministers under Keir Starmer have written to the prime minister warning that an expected cut to UK funding for aid to combat preventable diseases would be both a “moral failure” and a strategic disaster.

With ministers and officials expected to decide the UK’s contribution to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria within days, the letter renews pressure on Starmer to pull back from an expected 20% cut.

Dozens of other Labour MPs have already expressed alarm at the idea of the UK slashing its contribution to the Global Fund, especially as this would be announced on the sidelines of next month’s G20 summit in South Africa, which Starmer is attending.

There is wider concern about Starmer’s apparent reluctance to involve the UK in development projects, with his government deciding on the eve of the Cop30 climate summit to not contribute to a fund for the world’s remaining tropical forests.