Over half a million children could die as a result of UK aid cuts to vaccination programmes, MPs have heard.
Conservative former minister Sir David Davis asked Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty how he “lives with himself” as he claimed 30 million fewer children could be immunised if the UK cuts funding to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi).
Gavi is a public–private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
Since being founded in 2000, Gavi has immunised more than one billion children and prevented more than 17 million deaths.
Sir Keir Starmer recently slashed overseas aid spending to fund defence commitments that he said were necessary to protect the UK amid uncertainty over the Ukraine war and its implications for European security.
The cuts to official development assistance (ODA) will see the budget cut from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3% in the next two years.
Mr Doughty told MPs that decisions on how ODA will be used will be considered as part of the ongoing spending review but that “reducing the overall size of the budget will necessarily have an impact on the scale and shape of the work” carried out by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Sir David said: “Gavi themselves say that the change in policy will mean 37.9 million fewer children will be immunised, which means over five years 600,000 will die.
“How on earth does he live with himself with that policy?”
Mr Doughty said he doesn’t accept Sir David’s “characterisation” of the impact of the ODA cuts, saying “decisions have not yet been taken”.
He added: “The UK is one of the largest donors to Gavi, and we’ve committed £1.65 billion in the current strategic period up to 2025 and that’s going to make absolutely important impacts on children’s lives around the world.”
Labour MP for Milton Keynes Central Emily Darlington described Gavi as “one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour government” and called on the minister to commit to “continue to be a leading force in Gavi at the replenishment in June”.
Shadow Foreign Office minister Wendy Morton said the Government had provided “no indication about which programmes and where will be affected by the planned reductions to ODA and from when exactly these cuts will be effective”.
She continued: “We are told to wait for the spending review, yet many organisations, including those tackling infectious diseases, are left facing uncertainty, and they are left working at risk.
“So can the minister tell us what instructions have been issued to his department’s humanitarian aid programmes about what they are expected to do between now and the spending review in June?”
Mr Doughty replied: “We clearly have difficult decisions to make but the FCDO is not pausing all ODA programming.
“It is not making a cliff-edge happen in this year, and we are focusing on ensuring that every pound is going to be spent in the most impactful way in this new context, which is a very difficult decision.”
Speaking in February before the cuts to ODA were announced, Sir Keir Starmer said he had “long supported” Gavi and “will continue to support” it.
US President Donald Trump’s cuts to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) have also threatened Gavi’s capability to immunise children against diseases like measles, tuberculosis and polio, with US being one of the organisation’s largest donors.
