UK (Parliament Politics Magazine) – MPs, experts, and unions warn that scrapping the FCDO conflict unit risks UK security, peace-building, and call for urgent reconsideration.
As reported by The Guardian, the Foreign Office faces warnings that planning to close its unit on emerging conflict and refugee crises is called a “real mistake” that threatens UK security amid budget cuts.
The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office’s migration and conflict directorate, which employs around 100 staff, will be closed at year-end, with its duties absorbed by the wider department. It offers guidance and technical support to governments and civil society in troubled regions such as Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, and the Philippines.
Despite Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper’s recent assurance that the FCDO was “stepping up efforts” for peace-building, it is set to close. The restructuring plan risks 2,000 jobs, roughly 25% of the workforce, and has undermined morale among diplomatic staff.
How could FCDO cuts endanger UK security and conflict response?
Oliver Robbins told MPs in July that real-terms budget cuts and a reduction in international aid to 0.3% were hitting the department’s operations.
Sarah Champion, the Labour chair of the international development committee, said,
“We already know the UK’s aid cuts will be devastating, but FCDO will make the impact even worse if it removes expert teams in vital areas such as conflict prevention – before it’s even decided where the cuts will fall.”
She urged an immediate pause on the FCDO’s restructure, warning that ministers’ lack of planning risks lives and threatens the loss of vital departmental expertise.
The chairs of the all-party parliamentary group on conflict prevention, including Alex Ballinger and Lord McConnell, have written a letter to Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins to reconsider the closure of the conflict directorate.
Mr Ballinger, the Labour MP for Halesowen, said,
“Conflict undermines the UK’s own security when it escalates and spills over borders, which means it would be a real error to lose the expertise this unit provides.”
He added,
“Without it, the UK will be less equipped to reduce the enormous human suffering we are seeing in places like Sudan, leading to huge numbers of people fleeing to Europe. We’ll be less able to tackle conflict-driven disruption in places like the Red Sea, affecting prices on people’s grocery bills.”
Mr McConnell, a former Scottish Labour leader, stated,
“The UK has played an important role supporting peace agreements, bringing an end to conflict between armed groups and central governments in Ethiopia and in the Philippines, for example, as well as enabling dialogue to defuse tensions between India and Pakistan and in other locations.”
He continued,
“Conflict prevention and resolution must be an explicit goal of UK national security policy – and that will require dedicated funding and expertise for mediation support and peace-building work.”
Earlier this month, the Public and Commercial Services union filed a dispute with the FCDO over staff cuts, citing inadequate consultation.
What did the FCDO say about restructuring and conflict work?
An FCDO spokesperson said,
“The FCDO is going through a modernisation and restructuring process to ensure it is more agile, technically enabled, and focused on the UK’s key strategic priorities, including our core objectives to tackle illegal migration and prevent conflict. It is utter nonsense to suggest that changes to directorate structures mean those objectives will be downgraded; in fact, the exact opposite is true.”
They added,
“Tackling illegal migration is one of our highest priorities and will in future be covered by its own directorate; while the prevention and resolution of conflict remain more critical to the department’s work than ever, with hundreds of staff in the UK and overseas striving to achieve peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.”
Why is the UK cutting international funding?
The UK plans to cut its international aid funding primarily to redirect money towards defence spending. Aid will be reduced from 0.5% to 0.3% of Gross National Income by 2027/28.
The government said the reduction in official development assistance (ODA) is a political choice to fund other priorities, mainly defence and security. This reallocation is part of a plan to increase the UK’s defence spending to 2.6% of GDP by 2027.
