Responding to the first Labour party budget in 4 years, Catholic overseas aid agency CAFOD has criticised the government’s lack of focus on overseas issues.

“While we applaud history being made by the first female Chancellor today, it was disappointing to see no reference to Overseas Development Aid (ODA), which has been slashed and pillaged in recent years, with 28% of the aid budget spent on asylum seekers and refugees within the UK last year,” said CAFOD Executive Director Christine Allen.

“If a bonus allocation to cover these costs is not forthcoming, the help we give to other countries could fall to its lowest level since 2007. Turning our back on countries facing conflict, famine, unsustainable debt and the crippling effects of climate change is not who Britain is.  The Humanitarian Response plan for Sudan, for example, remains critically underfunded, despite it facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

CAFOD is concerned that any fall in ODA would mean more people dying overseas, or risking their lives attempting dangerous journeys to the UK and other European nations.

“The government has been clear it wants ‘more equitable partnerships with the global South’ so we maintain our hope that it will do the right thing,” said Ms Allen.

“Pope Francis’s Year of Jubilee in 2025 – traditionally a time to reset inequality – is a chance to pass much-needed legislation that would prevent private creditors from refusing to participate in life-saving debt relief – a move that would not cost the UK taxpayer anything.”

Speaking during a visit to London, Monsignor Donatien Babula Nshole, Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops Conference in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said:  “The UK has been a long-term aid supporter in my country, the DRC, and in many others around the world.  But reductions in overseas aid bring about suffering and loss of life in the communities our churches serve. If the UK wants to be a global leader, and continue to be recognised for working in true partnership, then now is the time to step up.”

• CAFOD is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, and part of Caritas International. We work with communities across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America to fight poverty and injustice, serving people in need, regardless of race, gender, religion or nationality.cafod.org.uk