United States: Withdrawal from International Organisations

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I encourage noble Lords not to overinterpret a decision such as this. I note the announcement last week of $2 billion from the United States to OCHA, which organises humanitarian support through the UN, which many people had not predicted. It is important that we respect the decisions of our closest ally in terms of funding. It is also important that the United Kingdom is not seen as a defender of the status quo in many of these organisations. Change is needed. We have argued for change for some time now. It is being accelerated because of decisions about money, but we should not allow our views on budgets to obscure the fact that we want change, efficiency and every penny to go to those who need it most.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, without US support and funding, it is likely that many of those organisations will need to reassess their work or seek greater funding and support from other member states, as the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, outlined. Can the Minister tell the House whether the UK has received any requests for additional funding—that is, in addition to what we are already spending—from any of these organisations following the USA’s withdrawal?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

It is important that we keep this in a bit of perspective. The amount of money that would come as a consequence of the announcement that the US made is about 3% of the UN’s overall budget. We already fund some organisations in the UN that the US does not fund, and we are not members of some of the 66 organisations in regard to which the US announced that it was changing its position. Where we believe that the global challenges can be met in British interests by our participation, we will continue. Where we do not feel like that, we will not.