LONDON — Ed Miliband has pledged to put climate and international aid at the heart of a new-look British foreign policy. There’s no cash — and a shrinking pool of staff to deliver his ambitions. Miliband, having helped propel new U.K.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to power, was rewarded with a promotion to foreign secretary, one of the four so-called “great offices of state.” The former energy secretary put an early stamp on the role by breaking with convention to personally take up the U.K.’s seat at the World Bank. It was a sign, he declared, that the U.K. is “serious about its global leadership on development and climate.” “We will work with others on tackling the climate crisis, strengthening our partnerships for international development, and reforming our international institutions so they deliver for all countries, including the world’s poorest people,” he told his officials on the day he was appointed. But that commitment, a reminder of the political passion for climate policy Miliband brings with him from two stints in charge of the energy department, is already hitting problems.
Miliband is taking over a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that one of his backbench colleagues described as “hollowed out.” In 2025, Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer slashed the U.K.’s aid budget from 0.5 percent of gross national income to just 0.3 percent, regardless of Labour’s manifesto pledge to hit a United Nations target of 0.7 percent. The U.K.’s aid watchdog, ICAI, projects that, as a result, aid spending will fall by around £6.5 billion by 2027/28, reaching an “historic low” as a share of national income. Then, last month, FCDO staff held their first strike action in 15 years over a departmental restructure that could see the loss of up to 2,000 jobs — many of them working in aid and development.
It was just the latest sign of strain at King Charles Street, the FCDO’s aging Whitehall HQ and once the building from which the British Empire was run. Some Labour MPs are skeptical about Miliband’s bid to restore the U.K.’s international standing on progressive foreign policy priorities. He’s also likely to attend November's UN COP31 climate summit in Turkey, said one senior Whitehall official.
The U.K.’s big NGOs — who have watched with mounting exasperation as successive governments pushed international development further down the list of government priorities — are praying Miliband can use his experience and influence to turn things around. But they worry he will quickly find himself without any levers to pull. Miliband’s ability to reverse that trend has already been cast into doubt by some NGOs and Labour development advocates, who point to Burnham’s promise to fund a national cap on bus fares by switching grants for international climate projects into repayable loans.
A Foreign Office newly focused on climate and development “will only work as a priority if you put money behind it,” said one Labour aide, granted anonymity to speak frankly. DESNZ, they said, had more of a “domestic focus.” Some Labour MPs, though, take hope from the appointment of Kirsty McNeill, Burnham and Miliband’s pick for the FCDO’s junior international development minister. McNeill, an experienced development specialist, used to advise former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and was an executive director at Save the Children before becoming an MP in 2024.
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