Don’t cut aid

sir – Reports (November 23) that the Chancellor wants to cut foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income in today’s Spending Review are disappointing.

Britain is one of the few countries that meet the target of 0.7 per cent of the national income being spent on aid to reduce poverty overseas. This is something that we should be proud of because it literally saves millions of lives, as well as enabling millions more children to flourish through receiving good nutrition and an education. We should not let it go easily.

Now particularly is not the time to cut aid. Poorer countries’ economies and healthcare systems are being more seriously affected by Covid-19 than ours, and 115 million people could be pushed back into extreme poverty.

As a result of Britain’s shrinking economy, the aid budget has already been cut by £2.9 billion. Reducing the dedicated percentage of GNI would mean losing a further £1.9 billion. Those figures are significant for the aid budget – which was £15.8 billion in 2019 – but they are small compared with the hundreds of billions being spent on the Covid response in Britain.

Our approach to Covid-19 needs to be global. We should increase, not decrease, the assistance we give to poorer countries.

Karen Downard

Macclesfield, Cheshire

sir – It is clear that the priorities of privileged former prime ministers (report, November 21) and their ilk are not those of ordinary people. In these difficult times we should scrap the overseas aid budget, funded as it is by force through taxation.

It can be replaced with a voluntary fund to which those with the means and inclination can contribute as they wish, leaving hard-pressed taxpayers to support their own families with less government interference.

Paul Lilley

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire