Diminished UK aid budget is ‘new normal’, says development minister

Jenny Chapman says the government is not treating reduction in spending on overseas aid to 0.3% as temporary

The UK’s drastically diminished aid budget is the “new normal,” the development minister, Jenny Chapman, has said, as she claimed Labour’s approach would help repair voters’ faith in overseas aid.

Lady Chapman took up her post in February, after Anneliese Dodds resigned in protest at Keir Starmer’s decision to slash overseas aid spending to 0.3% of gross national income from 0.5%, to pay for increased defence spending.