Cuts to Foreign Office staff 'puts lives at risk'

PLANS to cut almost 2,000 Foreign Office staff could lead to mistakes in the UK’s delivery of overseas aid - carrying “life or death” risks for the world’s poorest people, the chair of a parliamentary committee has warned.

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Sarah Champion, the Labour chairwoman of the Commons' International Development Committee, said lives and the UK’s global reputation would be put at risk by the loss of expertise at the department.

The proposed 25% reduction of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) workforce was being made “far too fast”, she said, calling for a pause to the restructuring until ministers laid out a strategy of how aid would be delivered.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, she wrote: “The FCDO’s greatest asset is its staff. There are inherent risks to losing these staff.