A leaked-timing controversy surrounds a UK government report locking in cuts to Britain's foreign aid budget through 2029, published in the final hours of Keir Starmer's premiership as Andy Burnham prepares to take over as prime minister. Columnist Halima Begum argues the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's annual report was deliberately released with minimal scrutiny and warns that, although Burnham could ignore this legacy commitment, doing so would be politically and morally unwise given the scale of harm the cuts are projected to cause.

The report confirms an already-reduced £13bn aid budget will fall by a further £6.5bn over four years, with Africa losing over half its bilateral support; Malawi's allocation alone drops from £50.2m to £5m by 2028-29. The FCDO's own equality assessment acknowledges the cuts will have negative impacts, projecting the Wish reproductive health programme's 30% cut will result in 2,400 more maternal deaths and 600,000 more unsafe abortions than current funding would prevent. The government's strategy also marks a shift from directly funding frontline services towards a "donor to investor" model centred on British International Investment, which will deploy up to £8bn over five years while seeking additional private capital.