Prime Minister's question asked in the House of Commons, by Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Wednesday, 20 May 2026 on behalf of the Prime Minister.

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Engagements

Question

I join the Prime Minister in sending our condolences to the family of Lance Bombardier Ciara Sullivan, who died in a tragic accident, and to all her colleagues. I hope the Prime Minister will also join me in sending condolences to the family of Scott Hastings, the former Scottish and Lions rugby player who sadly passed away at the weekend.

In 2025, Donald Trump and Elon Musk abolished America’s international aid programme. At the same time, the Government made huge cuts to the UK’s aid programme. We now see a dangerous outbreak of Ebola in central Africa, which many people fear is going to spread and get much worse, yet there are rumours across Whitehall that the Prime Minister is planning further cuts to Britain’s international aid programme this year. Will he rule that out entirely today?

Answer

The right hon. Gentleman raises the important issue of Ebola and Africa, and obviously we are working on it at pace and with others. We took a decision on aid in order to fund defence spending, because we needed to increase defence spending, but we are committed to our overseas aid, and we mitigated that decision with some of the measures put in place.

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Secondary information

Type

Oral question

Reference

786 c540 

Session

2026-27

Oral question type

Supplementary

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Subjects

Development aid Africa Disease control Ebola

Link

View this Prime Minister's question on hansard.parliament.uk