THE Foreign Office has been urged to pause its move out of East Kilbride following cuts to the international development budget by the UK Government in a bid to boost defence spending.
Keir Starmer announced on Monday that defence spending would reach 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, adding that the annual spend on defence will be up by an extra £13.4 billion every year from 2027.
The Prime Minister also said the international aid budget would decrease from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3%.
Following Starmer’s announcement, there have been calls to pause the move of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) staff from East Kilbride to Glasgow amid “deep uncertainty” around the international development budget.
There are roughly 1500 FCDO staff based in East Kilbride, formerly the base of the Department for International Development, who are expected to exit from the town by early 2027.
East Kilbride Labour MP Joani Reid said plans to move FCDO staff from the town to Glasgow must be paused “while there is deep uncertainty about the international development budget”, according to STV.
It had previously been reported the move would be delayed until 2031.
The Foreign Office’s departure from South Lanarkshire in favour of Glasgow, which is more than 15 miles away, has previously been described as a “betrayal” of the town.
Previously top civil servant Philip Barton said the Foreign Office wanted to make the move “as quickly as we can” in a letter to the Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry.
He said: “Our hope is that the move can begin in late 2026/early 2027.”
Starmer’s decision to cut the international aid budget was criticised by the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (below) who said the Prime Minister had taken the decision straight from the “populist playbook”.
Referencing comments by David Lammy earlier this month that the US would leave a power vacuum with its cuts to foreign aid, Flynn added: “He said that it would be a big strategic mistake that would allow China to step in.
“Why was the Foreign Secretary wrong and the Prime Minister right?”
Starmer defended his decision to cut foreign aid by insisting it was not “ideological”, as he added: "He welcomes the increase in defence spending but he doesn’t want to say how he will fund it.
"Choices, grown-up choices about the future of Europe require grown-up decisions and choices and that is what we’ve done.”
However, charities and aid organisations have criticised the Prime Minister’s “reckless” decision labelling it a “betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable”.
