If you take a look at British government spending plans, you might notice a strange coincidence. Boris Johnson has announced that the UK’s military budget will rise by 10% for each of the next four years. This is on top of an existing agreement for an annual rise of inflation plus 0.5%, so given the current trend this takes the addition up to 12%.
Meanwhile, the Treasury wants to cut the UK’s development assistance programme from the current 0.7% of gross national income, as favoured by the UN, down to 0.5%: close to a 30% cut.
Johnson has denied any connection and precise figures are not yet available. But if both changes go ahead, this means that the military budget will go up by about £5.0 billion and the development budget will be cut by £4.2 billion. But the aid budget is falling anyway because of the COVID-related drop in the UK’s GNI, which means that the cut will actually be more or less enough to pay for the military’s extra £5 billion.
