THE UK risks “facing the global conflict crisis with one hand tied behind its back”, unless it invests in development and diplomacy, the Prime Minister has been warned by senior figures including former heads of MI5 and the armed forces.
Lord Evans of Weardale, a former director general of the British Security Service, who chairs the Canterbury Crown Nominations Committee, is joined by the Bishop to the Armed Forces, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, and the Bishops of London and Southwell & Nottingham, in a letter warning that initiatives to address the root causes of conflict may “disappear” amid cuts to the aid budget.
Published on Tuesday, the letter was coordinated by the chairs of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding: Alex Ballinger, a former Marine, and Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale. Highlighting that violent conflict is now impacting more countries than at any point since the Second World War, it urges the Prime Minister to “set out the Government’s strategy and commitment to resourcing civilian efforts to prevent and address” it, within the National Security Strategy, due to be published before the NATO summit next week.
“To durably strengthen national security, therefore, the Government must invest not just in defence, but also in development and diplomacy. This includes vital initiatives that prevent, resolve and address the root causes of conflicts as well as those which help societies recover . . . Yet we are gravely concerned that these initiatives may disappear amidst cuts to the aid budget. This would be a false economy . . . It would also mark the UK’s effective withdrawal from agendas it once championed.”
Without adequately funding such initiatives, it says, “the UK might risk facing the global conflict crisis with one hand tied behind its back”. On Wednesday, Bishop Nelson said: “The world is more dangerous now than it has been for decades. The Global Peace Index 2025 says we are at a tipping point. The Government is clearly right to invest in our armed forces, and as Christians we are also called to work for peace.”
Among the signatories is the former development secretary Sir Andrew Mitchell, who told the International Development Committee in February that focusing on conflict prevention during his time in office had been “absolutely in our national interest . . . It made life more bearable, particularly for women in Somalia, but it also made us safer on the streets of London and Birmingham, too.”
The Government confirmed last week that spending on defence would rise to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2027, funded by cuts to the aid budget (News, 28 February).