PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for a massive boost to military spending funded by slashing overseas aid was slammed as “grotesquely awful” by peace campaigners today.

He faced a wave of opposition after telling MPs that arms spending is to rise by more than £13 billion a year by 2027, with the aim of a further £30bn-plus hike in the next parliament.

The first tranche of this new arms race is to be funded by a huge cut to the overseas development budget, from 0.5 per cent of GDP to just 0.3 per cent, all justified by the three-year-old Ukraine war.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said that Labour’s move “was designed to appease Donald Trump and the right wing in Britain.

“It will take the money from overseas development budgets, consigning some of the poorest people in the world to become even poorer.

“But no worry — Britain will develop more arms and more weapons to facilitate the increasing wars taking place throughout the world.

“There is something grotesquely awful about a Labour government denying the Waspi women around £10 bn in one-off compensation but then immediately committing to £13bn a year for this increased spending.”

Sir Keir boasted in his Commons statement that the arms spending hike would boost British growth and jobs.

But Ms German said: “The claim that it will help British jobs is one that no-one should be fooled by.

“Any big increase in spending — on housing and health, for example — would have the same effect.

“The trade unions who welcome this are deluding themselves: it will do little for their members in those industries and will worsen the social security of housing, health and education that millions of workers in this country desperately need.”

However, GMB national officer Matt Roberts welcomed the announcement, claiming that “defence spending can be a powerful force domestically for growth and levelling-up in our regions and nations — but only when we make good choices to buy British.”

Anti-poverty campaigners looked less kindly on the plan. 

Save the Children UK chief executive Moazzam Malik said: “We are stunned by this decision to cut the aid budget in order to increase military spending.

“It is a betrayal of the world’s most vulnerable children and the UK’s national interest.”

And Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now called it “a day of shame for Britain.”

He added: “Starmer’s announcement today is politics at its most base.

“To appease Trump, he will cut aid to its lowest level in a generation, forcing the poorest to pay so he can push taxpayer money into the coffers of arms corporations.”

Even Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the Commons international development committee, appealed to Sir Keir to think again.

“Cutting the aid budget to fund defence spending is a false economy that will only make the world less safe,” she said.

“Conflict is often an outcome of desperation, climate and insecurity; our finances should be spent on preventing this.”

Sir Keir claimed that Britain would “continue to play a key humanitarian role in Sudan, in Ukraine and in Gaza, tackling climate change, supporting multi-national efforts on global health and challenges like vaccination.”

His aid cut was opposed by SNP, Plaid Cymru and Greens but welcomed by Reform UK, which claimed the premier was stealing its policies.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said: ”We said increase defence spend to 3 per cent in six years.  We said slash foreign aid budget. Starmer agrees with Reform.”

And there is worse ahead. Ben Zaranko, Institute of Fiscal Studies associate director, warned that “getting towards 3 per cent of GDP will eventually mean more tough choices and sacrifices elsewhere — whether higher taxes, or cuts to other bits of government.

“The world has changed, and one question is whether the government’s pre-existing promises on tax and spend might need to change as well.”