FORMER Green Party leader Caroline Lucas shredded Keir Starmer’s plans to slash foreign aid during her appearance on BBC Newsnight.
The English politician, who served as leader of the Green Party between 2016 and 2018, cited the Prime Minister’s criticisms of the Conservatives for cutting foreign aid before then taking aim at the Labour leader for doing the very same.
“It used to be the case where Keir Starmer himself recognised [the importance of foreign aid]. In 2021 he stood at the despatch box when it was the Tory Government and said it was the wrong decision because aid is an investment in our national security.”
Must watch, Caroline Lucas on Newsnight First she sheds Keir Starmer citing his criticism of the Conservatives for cutting the foreign aid budget, now doing the same himself Then she sheds Matthew Syed who spews the usual 'the rich will leave if we tax their wealth' nonsense… pic.twitter.com/FM61jwmvhX
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) February 26, 2025
She continued: “Countries that don’t have that financial support are more likely to be unstable, they’re more likely to have violence and conflict … in his own terms a cut in the aid budget does not make us more secure.
“What might have been a hard decision would have been to have stood up to the vested interests that might have been against any suggestion. For example, levying a wealth tax on the super-rich. Why are we trying yet again to make the poorest people pay for these choices?”
She then took aim at fellow panellist, author and journalist Matthew Syed for his claims that the rich will leave if we tax their wealth.
“People stay in this country for all sorts of reasons … Every time there is any kind of suggestion about asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay some more we always get these scare stories that they’re going to dash out of the country. It’s not the case," Lucas said.
She then claimed: “We do not tax wealth in this country to any significant extent at all”
Charities reacted to the foreign aid slashing negatively, with one labelling the move as a “betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable”.
