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

"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."

"Thomas, who was minister for Africa under Gordon Brown and served as a business minister for Starmer, said that in the earlier role he had seen the impact of the Global Fund's work first-hand, for example mothers able to protect their unborn children from HIV infection because of antiretroviral drugs provided by the Switzerland-based organisation. These were not abstract statistics. They were healthy babies who would not have survived without this assistance."

Seven former junior ministers in the Labour party urged the prime minister to reverse an expected reduction in UK funding to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Senior officials have discussed reducing the UK contribution from £1bn to £800m for 2027–29, a cut that aid groups warn could hamper one of the most cost-effective global health programmes and cause up to 340,000 avoidable deaths. Concern surrounds wider reluctance to engage in development projects, including a recent decision not to fund protection for remaining tropical forests. The appeal remained private, with only two signatories publicly named.

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