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Treasury says overseas aid cuts are immune to legal challenge
The Guardian
|June 21, 2025
Cuts of £5bn to the UK overseas aid budget cannot be challenged in the courts, government lawyers have said, even though ministers have no plan to return spending to the legal commitment of 0.7% of UK gross national income (GNI).
The assertion by Treasury solicitors that ministers are immune from legal challenge over aid cuts comes in preliminary exchanges with the aid advocacy group One Campaign. It is the first step in what could prove a highly embarrassing judicial review.
In the spring statement in March the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said she was slashing aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI. The international development minister, Jenny Chapman, recently said in a Guardian interview that this level of spending was the new normal.
The £5bn cut, due to be imposed by April 2027, is being billed as necessary to fund a new permanent increase in defence spending required by long-term changes to the security landscape.
This story is from the June 21, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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