A Labour government in the United Kingdom would restore the Department for International Development, according to party leader Keir Starmer.
Asked if he would be bringing DFID back should his party win the next election, due by January 2025, Starmer replied: “We are, for so many reasons. Not to see the importance of a department that is focused on fixing some of the global problems that actually unlock a lot of the promise etcetera is, I just think, totally misguided.”
Starmer, who was director of public prosecutions prior to entering politics, “did a lot of work … in other countries on projects that were DFID-led,” he told the Rest Is Politics podcast on Wednesday. “Where we were dealing with problems of the rule of law in other countries, in order not only to ensure those countries thrived as democracies but also to ensure that we continued to thrive as a country,” he continued.
About the author
William Worley@willrworley
Will Worley is the Climate Correspondent for Devex, covering the intersection of development and climate change. He previously worked as UK Correspondent, reporting on the FCDO and British aid policy during a time of seismic reforms. Will’s extensive reporting on the UK aid cuts saw him shortlisted for ‘Specialist Journalist of the Year’ in 2021 by the British Journalism Awards. He can be reached at william.worley@devex.com.
