David Miliband: Trump to blame for Ebola outbreak that killed thousands

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has denounced “bloody frustrating” cuts in overseas aid by the Labour government.

Claims that such aid spending is a waste of money makes him want to “scratch my fingernails on the chalk board” in exasperation, he says.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent , Mr Miliband, who runs the US based International Rescue Committee aid organisation, also fiercely criticises cuts in aid by Donald Trump .

In a wide ranging discussion with The Independent Editor-in-Chief Geordie Greig, he said the cuts are to blame for the outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in Africa which has claimed more than 3,000 lives since May.

Mr Miliband, a cabinet minister in the administrations of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, refused to say how he feels about younger brother Ed, who beat him in the 2010 Labour leadership contest, being appointed to his old job as foreign secretary by prime minister Andy Burnham.

But he praised Mr Burnham’s “open, intelligent, can-do mentality” to governing, commenting enigmatically: “He knows you have to pedal the bicycle if you want it to go forward.”

As president and chief executive of the IRC, Mr Miliband has seen its annual budget slashed from $1.5 billion to $1 billion by the Trump regime.

He is also dismayed by successive cuts in international development by British governments, including Sir Keir Starmer’s controversial decision to reduce it from 0.5 per cent of national income to 0.3 per cent, adding to cuts by the previous Tory government.

“It is short-sighted, it's not good for Britain, and it's the wrong decision. I'm absolutely clear about that,” he said.

The way to justify such spending is not to talk in abstract terms about percentages, he maintains, but about its life and death impact.

“What we've got to say is 45 million children around the world are acutely malnourished. Britain should be part of a drive to solve that. Fourteen million women have a life-threatening episode in childbirth, and about 2 million of them die of bleeding. That is a solvable problem.

“All I'm saying is a fraction of the total spend can make a life-changing difference for people.

“It makes me scratch my fingernails on the chalkboard that the aid budget is being cut at a time when we have more evidence of what works in delivering effective aid than ever before.

“There's no excuse that, ‘oh, we don't know how to spend the money’. We've got randomised controlled trials (showing) how the money makes a difference. So it's bloody frustrating.”