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In her Spring Statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the government will provide an extra £2.2bn for the Ministry of Defence in the next financial year, following on from a previous pledge to increase military spending to 2.5% and reducing overseas aid to 0.3% of Gross National Income. By 2027/28, military spending is to increase by £6.4bn compared to previous plans, with life-saving aid slashed by £6.5bn.
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Cuts to overseas aid will mean ending life-saving work in health, education, sanitation, and women’s and children’s rights. The House of Commons International Development Committee reported that cuts by the previous government would already mean “a litany of the people – living in poverty, suffering hunger, women, girls, disabled people – who will no longer be supported”.
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Reeves stated that the government will also provide £2bn of increased capacity for UK Export Finance to provide loans for overseas buyers of UK defence goods and services. This has nothing to do with ‘defending’ the UK, but is purely about making it easier for arms companies to sell weapons abroad, very often to corrupt and repressive regimes.
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Meanwhile, the government is slashing money from social security, particularly targeting sick and disabled people. The official assessment of the impact of the benefits cuts show that an extra 250,000 people will be pushed into relative poverty by 2029/30, including 50,000 children. Those eligible for disability payments will be hit the hardest.
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The arms companies that will benefit from this money include those complicit in the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza – specifically for the ongoing transfer of UK-made parts for the F-35 jets, 15% of which are made in the UK. BAE Systems is the prime contractor for the F-35 jet programme in the UK – and yet on violations of international humanitarian law or war crimes committed in Gaza with these jets, BAE remains silent.
Campaign Against Arms Trade’s Media Coordinator, Emily Apple, said:
It is utterly abhorrent that this government is punishing sick and disabled people whilst rewarding companies that are complicit in war crimes and the gravest violations of international law. We should be promoting welfare, not warfare, and ensuring there is real and meaningful security for the most vulnerable people in society.“The companies that will reap the benefits of this announcement include those complicit in the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza. The market value of arms companies in the UK has soared over the past three years, as their shareholders profit from war. These companies should be held accountable for their appalling breaches of international law not emboldened to profit even further from the devastation they cause.
For more information contact Emily Apple, [email protected], 07495 659777
