515. Starmer’s Foreign Aid Betrayal, Islamophobia & Australia’s Far Right (Question Time)

The Rest Is Politics

Goalhanger

News, Politics, Government

4.5 • 11.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are the UK government’s aid cuts more extreme than those made under austerity and Trump? What can Britain learn from South Australia's landslide against the far-right? Have the Tories & Reform adopted a strategy of Islamophobia? Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more. __________ Go deeper into the world of The Rest Is Politics by signing up for our free newsletter HERE, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis and weekend reads from Alastair and Rory. Join The Rest Is Politics Plus: Start your free trial at therestispolitics.com to unlock exclusive bonus content – including Rory and Alastair’s miniseries – plus ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, exclusive newsletters, discounted book prices, and a private chatroom on Discord. The Rest Is Politics is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/politics. Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/restispolitics It's risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee ✅ __________ Instagram: @restispolitics Twitter: @restispolitics Email: therestispolitics@goalhanger.com __________ Social Producer: Celine Charles Video Editors: Josh Smith, Lorcan Moullier Assistant Producer: Daisy Alston-Horne Producer: Evan Green Exec Producer: Chris Sawyer General Manager: Tom Whiter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for listening to The Restis Politics. To support the podcast, listen without the adverts and get early access to episodes and live show tickets, go to therestispolitics.com. That's the rest is politics.com.
0:16.0	Welcome to the Restis Politics Question Time with me, Alastair Campbell.
0:23.1	And with me, Rory Stewart.
0:25.0	Now, Rory, I think we may agree on this one.
0:27.4	Lucy is a trip plus member from Warrington.
0:30.0	Love the Warrington Wolves.
0:31.4	What did you make of the government's announcement last week that it is cutting the development budget from 0.5% to 0.3%?
0:39.4	Surely, it says Lucy, at a time of increasing war, worsening global security, we should not give up on tackling both the root
0:44.2	causes and consequences of these conflicts. Yeah, I think it's completely shocking. I don't
0:49.1	think people have concentrated on this. So, firstly, the Labour government, when the Tories decided
0:53.5	to cut international development, attacked them repeatedly in the House of Commons, and Kiyah Sama made these great values speeches about how the Tories need to understand that international development is national security and there's no trade-off between the two. He said that when he did the podcast and opposition. Absolutely. And everyone was very cheered up when he said the podcast and opposition that he was going to hold to the point seven percent commitment.
1:13.5	And they were all very much signed up. As soon as fiscal conditions allow will come in. Then they
1:17.9	came in and they said they were going to increase spending on various things, but in fact, not on
1:21.9	international development. And the fact is that what Kier-Stama's government has done with
1:27.1	international development spending is worse
1:29.6	than anything that happened during austerity, worse than anything that happened on international
1:34.7	development under Boris Johnson or Liz Truss or anyone.
1:37.5	In fact, on international development.
1:39.4	So austerity was a 25% cut in departments.
1:43.5	This is almost a 70% cut in international development
1:47.3	standing from where I was as the International Development Section 2019. I was spending about
1:51.2	$20 billion dollars a year. We're now down in practice. If you take out the amount that
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