Firstly, let me start by saying that the Prime Minister continues to disappoint, not a disaster but underwhelming and the son of a toolmaker on the 25th of February 2025, showed a lack of humanity. He acted like a Tory, in that when George Osborne said “We are all in it together” he lied and made the weakest pay for the corruption, incompetence and greed of the banking class. Now a Labour Prime Minster has also “tapped” the most vulnerable on the planet to fund the increase in defence spending, aping calls from the Tories and Reform. He is doing this by cutting international aid from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% of GNI after the dollar billionaire Sunak cut it from 0.7% to 0.5% in 2022. This means that a Labour Prime Minister is gutting the international aid budget by a further £5.0 billion to around £8.5 billion, 40% of which will be spent by the home office to house refugees here. The Cameron government passed the requirement to spend 0.7% in 2015 in line with UN targets. Despite his debacle over Brexit, credit where credit is due.
The reality is, in this new geopolitical environment the UK and Europe need to up their game and invest much more in their defence infrastructure to be less dependent on America’s security umbrella though not undermining Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. In this new world order, the UK has little choice but to increase defence spending to 3.0 % of GDP but sadly the Prime Minster has taken the easy option, making the world’s poor pay because they do not have a vote. It would not be unfair to say that a Labour government headed by Keir Starmer has betrayed the poorest on the planet, just as Musk and Trump dismantle USAID, a coincidence? This is not just a betrayal of the idea of soft power coined by Joseph Nye but a failure to recognise the idea of a common humanity and how our futures are interdependent. In addition, these cuts will happen in the middle of a climate crisis, conflict, starvation, and displacement throughout the continent of Africa, rolling back decades of progress in health outcomes and poverty.
The Prime Minister’s remorse at the despatch box was sombre but unconvincing. In previous posts, I have said how tax could be raised by making the tax system fairer. On Politics Live, a Tory even suggested a hypothecated tax increase for defence. On tax, the Prime Minister could have looked at various issues around pensions, like adding pension pots into inheritance tax, 25% tax-free withdrawal better targeted at smaller pension pots, a wealth tax, a land value tax, clamping down more aggressively on £35.0 billion of tax evasion, the tax avoidance industry and fraud, in addition to sacking Rachel Reeves. Before people on the right start jumping up and down, this is about fair taxation, not higher taxation.
Finally, I hope the Prime Minister can sleep well, as vulnerable children across the globe die of starvation or because they cannot get vaccines or basic healthcare. Mandella said “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice” and may I add an act of self-interest and global security.
Suneil Sharma
26th February 2025
The Gob 
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