# The minister who still believes in aid

> Kirsty McNeill wants Britain back at 0.7%, but first she has to prove the money already spent is working.
- Title: The minister who still believes in aid · the Guardian
- Summary: Kirsty McNeill wants Britain back at 0.7%, but first she has to prove the money already spent is working. With the aid budget cut to 0.3%, the argument has…
- Keywords: uk aid, foreign policy, labour, development, kirsty mcneill, news, world, minister, still, believes, aid, the Guardian
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/13/sweat-the-asset-new-development-minister-plots-path-to-make-uk-aid-count
- Published: 2026-09-13T21:30:14+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: uk aid, foreign policy, labour, development, kirsty mcneill, news, world
## A true believer takes the job
Kirsty McNeill, former Gordon Brown adviser and Save the Children executive, has been development minister since July. She calls herself a huge believer in aid and wants her colleagues to hear it.

> I'm a huge believer in aid; I'm a huge believer in the quality of British aid
## The pledge, minus the date
She reaffirmed Labour's manifesto promise to return to spending 0.7% of national income on aid. She would not say when, falling back on the formula that it happens when fiscal circumstances allow.

> when fiscal circumstances allow
## How 0.7 became 0.3
Blair adopted the 0.7% target and it held as cross-party consensus until Rishi Sunak set it aside during Covid. Labour then cut further, taking spending down to 0.3%.
## The cuts cost a minister
Charities say the reductions are sharply shrinking bilateral support to some of the world's poorest countries. Anneliese Dodds quit over the scale of them, and Jenny Chapman took the job in her place.
## Money for the El Nino year
On Monday she will announce up to £15m from the humanitarian crisis fund for prevention in the most exposed countries: vaccinating livestock, getting cash to farmers. The UN expects the most severe El Nino in 1,000 years.

> It will just do very practical things like vaccinate livestock and get cash to farmers
## Stop apologising for aid
McNeill thinks the sector lost its nerve and buried the simple case under clever secondary arguments. Ask people on the doorstep whether Britain should save a child's life if it can, and they say yes.

> As we've lost our confidence, we started trying to make lots of different arguments for development
## Sweat the asset
Her read is that voters worry about value for money more than the principle. With resources this tight, the promise is to squeeze more impact out of every pound already committed.

> sweat the asset
## Five securities, not one budget
She is recasting the role around health, climate, food, human and economic security, pressing for reform of the international bodies that spend UK aid and building bespoke partnerships on specific issues.

> The focus on securities is an attempt to recast my job as being about global cooperation
## The grind, not the summit
A Make Poverty History veteran, she rejects the 2005 model of big summits and big cheques. She wants to be judged on diplomatic legwork, with Ed Miliband putting development and climate at the centre of the FCDO.

> have I done the grind, the diplomatic grind, to get the maximum we can out of our relationships?
## Key takeaway

With the aid budget cut to 0.3%, the argument has shifted from how much Britain gives to how hard every pound is made to work.