The UK has announced it will axe £150 million from Britain’s contribution to the international fight against Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria – putting some 250,000 lives at risk, many of them children. Charities say the cut will force officials into “impossible, life-or-death decisions.”
The UK has pledged £850m towards the Global Fund’s work over the next three years – down from £1bn in 2022, itself a cut from £1.4bn in 2019. It comes as part of plans to shift money away from foreign aid to pay for defence.
The Independent revealed the cut of 15 per cent on Friday, with seven Labour MPs who served as ministers under Keir Starmer also having written to the prime minister warning the cut would be a “moral failure”.
In a statement to parliament, international development minister Jenny Chapman said: “I am proud to announce that we will invest £850 million in the Global Fund for 2026-2028 to deliver lifesaving prevention, testing and treatment services.
“This commitment is not only a moral imperative, it is a strategic investment in global and national health security and in wider economic growth and stability.”
She added, “The decision on the UK’s pledge to the Global Fund has been taken in the context of the difficult decision this government has made to reduce spending on development assistance from 0.5 per cent of [national income] to 0.3 per cent to fund increased spending on our defence and national security”.
The Global Fund aims to raise $18bn (around £14bn) to save an estimated 23 million lives between 2027 and 2029. Worldwide NGO the ONE campaign calculates that a £1bn commitment by the UK would save 1.7 million lives, so a £150m drop could see more than 250,000 lives lost.
Labour MP Fleur Anderson was one of those who wrote to Sir Keir. Despite the rosy statement from government, she told The Independent that concerns remained: “It’s important to be leading as a country,” she said. “We are taking our place on the global stage and this is one of the ways in which we can make sure that our actions back up our words.
“Defence funding is going up but there has to be balance with our diplomacy and development funding in order to ensure our security”.
The Global Fund uses contributions from richer governments including the UK to pay for a significant chunk of the world’s programmes to fight HIV, TB and malaria. Ms Anderson said she was concerned aid cuts were making successful funders of drugs and vaccines compete with each other for funding.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The UK’s new support for the Global Fund is an investment in our shared security and prosperity.
“No nation can tackle global health threats alone. As we co-host this vital funding replenishment with South Africa, we call on all partners to join us in building a safer, healthier world for everyone.”
Chair of the international development committee, Sarah Champion, said she was, “deeply disappointed that our new contribution is 15 per cent lower in cash terms than at the last replenishment, while global inflation means that our new pledge counts for far less than it did a few years ago”.
Adrian Lovett, UK executive director of the ONE Campaign, which advocates for investment in Africa, said this pledge could help save around 1.4 million lives in the next three years. “But if the government had matched the UK’s previous commitment, it could have helped save 255,000 more lives, many of them children,” he added. “Labour’s devastating 40 per cent cut to the overall budget for international assistance has forced officials into impossible, life-or-death decisions.”
The UK’s pledge announcement comes ahead of the fund’s official fundraising event on 21 November which Sir Keir Starmer is co-hosting along with South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Given the UK’s role, “it would have been very embarrassing not to have been as generous as we possibly can,” Catherine West, another Labour MP to write to the prime minister on Friday, told The Independent.
Ms West said she welcomed the figure, which she had feared could be lower – especially in light of the “tough budget that we’ve got in two weeks’ time”.
“I am really pleased that both Jenny Chapman and also the prime minister have all decided that this is a really worthwhile and important fund”.
But chief executive of UK-based HIV charity STOPAIDs, Mike Podmore, said the UK’s reduced pledge, “puts at risk the real possibility of ending AIDS by 2030.
“While still a major contribution, a reduction may also limit the Global Fund’s ability to maintain existing progress and deliver its life-saving work,” from prevention work to medicine access.
Labour MP Kerry McCarthy said she stood by the fears laid out in Friday’s letter to the prime minister. “I am concerned about the commitment being reduced,” she said.
“We know that spending is finite,” she added, but the Global Fund was an area where, “we could put our money and just know that it’s having a really good impact. I think the important thing about it is it also feeds down to the governments in these countries. It’s not just handouts. It’s facilitating these governments taking control of…the HIV, TB, and malaria in their own countries”.
Chief Scientific Officer of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Dr Kavindhran Velen, said: “Now is not the time to cut funding and engagement in the fight against TB – we can do that once the job is done” adding that the “devastating impact” of the US cuts had created a moment for the UK to “step up, not retreat”.
Malaria No More UK’s managing director, Gareth Jenkins, said: “This is a disappointing step-back from the UK’s long-held leadership in the fight against malaria.
“Letting our guard down now could scar Africa’s next generation by claiming tens of thousands more children’s lives. The economic consequences could also be severe with billions wiped from sub-Saharan African economies and weaker trading partnerships denting the UK’s own growth prospects”.
The government had said the fund would receive a larger share of the aid budget for health, indicating the depths of the pain to come for those areas in line for much deeper cuts.
In order to cut 40 per cent of the aid budget overall, Baroness Chapman has previously said that other recipients of UK aid money, including services specifically supporting women and girls, would lose more or all of their funding.
Mr Lovett, of the ONE Campaign said: “In the context of deep cuts to the overall budget for international assistance, this investment in the Global Fund is a welcome commitment to collective efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria – but ministers must go further.
“Investing in the fight against these deadly diseases has the wide support of the public. They recognise it is not only the right thing to do, but that it is in our own interests. Viruses and diseases do not stop at borders – so when we invest in healthier lives abroad, we make ourselves safer here at home too.”
This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
