It's a tragedy: Save the Children boss says UK aid cut will affect lives of 60m people

Labour's deep cuts to the UK aid budget will touch the lives of 60 million people, and underline Britain's withdrawal from the world stage, the chief executive of Save the Children UK has warned.

- Heather Stewart

Moazzam Malik, a former diplomat and civil servant, took up the post in January and has spent his first six months learning more about the plight of children in Britain and abroad.

"It's fair to say, I think my generation of policymakers and politicians haven't done the greatest job in delivering a better future for children and young people and their families," he said, at the charity's London headquarters.

He said that since Boris Johnson merged the Department for International Development with the Foreign Office five years ago, Britain had increasingly stepped back from engagement with the global south.

"As somebody who's spent 25 years working for Britain representing our country in international forums and on the international stage, it's a tragedy that we've chosen to withdraw," Malik said.

The Conservatives reduced aid from 0.7% of gross domestic product to 0.5% in 2020, during the Covid pandemic - and began spending a rapidly expanding share of that on housing asylum seekers in Britain.

Keir Starmer's government announced a further significant cut, to 0.3% of GDP, this year, to pay for defence spending, prompting the then international development minister, Anneliese Dodds, to resign.