THOUSANDS of women will die in pregnancy as a result of “absolutely horrific” cuts to Britain’s foreign aid this year, ministers were warned today.

Hundreds of thousands more women will face unsafe abortions as a result of cuts to the Foreign Office’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending for 2023-24, an internal assessment also found.

Campaigners urged the government to restore Britain’s aid budget to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) after the equality impact assessment of cuts to the budget was published.

Shared with ministers earlier this year to inform their decisions on where significant cuts to the budget would fall, the assessment by and to the international development committee highlighted in particular the cuts’ consequences for women’s health and wellbeing.

ODA spending is due to rise marginally in 2023-24 and then rise by 12 per cent in 2024-25 to £8.3 billion but remains below pre-2020 levels after the government decided to temporarily reduce it from 0.7 per cent of GNI to 0.5 per cent.

Select committee chairwoman Labour MP Sarah Champion said the impact of the cuts was “absolutely horrific” but admitted her party would not immediately restore the foreign aid budget if in government.

Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden said: “This report shows that the government understands their politically driven cuts to the aid budget will have atrociously inhumane effects — leading to wholly avoidable deaths amongst some of the most marginalised groups in the world.

“But issues of life and death appear to be of no importance next to their desire to cling on to a few marginal seats at the next election.

“While aid is not a magical answer to all of the world’s problems — for example, it’s scandalous the government pours aid money into private hospitals and schools which routinely fail the majority — in a world as grossly unequal as ours, redistribution of wealth is vital.

“Rather than cutting the aid budget, we need to transform our understanding of aid as ‘charity’ or a ‘nice thing to do’. In reality, it is a matter of justice and fairness.”

Save the Children UK’s Gwen Hines said that Britain’s aid cuts are a “death sentence for children already living in some of the most dangerous parts of the world” and “fly in the face of the government’s commitments to ‘leave no one behind.’”

The Foreign Office said British aid spending is due to increase to £8.3bn next year, and “will be focused on programmes addressing humanitarian crises.”

Liz McKean our Director of Campaigns, Policy and Programmes said the UK is "utterly failing on its commitment to eradicate poverty", adding: "It is especially galling considering the UK’s historical legacy of extracting wealth and resources from poorer countries through centuries of colonial enterprise.

The UK owes a debt to many of these countries and should be repairing historical injustices, not slashing the aid budget, and shirking its obligations."