Influential Labour backbenchers are urging Andy Burnham to reclaim the party's leadership on international development by charting a course back to spending 0.7% of national income on overseas aid, according to a forthcoming collection of essays by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) thinktank.
10-year roadmap to 0.7% target
Former minister Fleur Anderson, whose pre-parliamentary career was in international development, calls on Burnham to promise a return to the 0.7% target, suggesting a 10-year roadmap that future governments could deviate from in times of crisis. "What matters is not mechanical annual targets, but establishing a credible long-term trajectory that partner governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs and local organisations can plan around," she writes.
The 0.7% target was legislated under Gordon Brown but scrapped in 2020 by Rishi Sunak as a temporary Covid pandemic measure. Keir Starmer further cut aid spending to fund defence, prompting the resignation of development minister Anneliese Dodds.
Defence and development
Anderson argues that retreating from development is a false economy: "A more unstable world will not become safer because wealthy countries disengage from tackling the conditions that drive instability in the first place."
Liam Byrne, chair of the Commons business and trade committee, calls for the UK to use its 2027 G20 presidency to convene discussions on a global wealth tax. The UK will take over from the US, which under Donald Trump has downplayed its role. Byrne says the UK could "take this momentum and help solve the problem of designing a tax that actually works."
G20 and G7 opportunities
Former Labour minister Gareth Thomas suggests using the UK's G20 presidency and its subsequent G7 chair to kickstart talks on replacing the UN's sustainable development goals, due to expire in 2030. "While the G20 and G7 are insufficient forums for establishing these global goals themselves, the UK's presidencies are an opportunity that should not be missed to ignite the process," he said.
Thomas highlights the Gavi vaccine alliance's success in vaccinating children in war-torn countries for $1 a dose, alongside the International Rescue Committee led by David Miliband. He proposes: "The UK's forthcoming G20 presidency could aim to pool $1bn towards an ambitious multi-year rollout to immunise a billion children living in fragile states."
The NEF's chief executive, Danny Sriskandarajah, said: "A lot of foreign policy has been defensive in recent years, trying to stop things from getting worse, but there is also an opportunity for the UK to show global leadership on key progressive issues."
