Click here to read the letter

Malala Yousafzai, Annie Lennox, Richard Curtis, Joely Richardson, Misan Harriman, Myleene Klass, Helen Fielding, Natasha Kaplinsky and Nick Hewer are among a host of high-profile figures urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to abandon the UK’s global leadership on girls’ education.

In an open letter published today, they are joined by entrepreneurs, respected academics and concerned citizens from across the UK in warning that proposed cuts to the UK aid budget could have devastating consequences for millions of girls worldwide whose futures depend on access to education.

With government ministers themselves admitting that education and gender are likely to face the most severe reductions, the signatories are calling on the Prime Minister to stand by Britain’s proud legacy — and to keep his promise to put the UK “back on the world stage.”

“Education is not a luxury — it’s a lifeline,” the letter reads. “We urge you, Prime Minister, not
to step back now.”

For any media enquires please contact communications@street-child.org 

Read the letter below: 

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister: Keep Supporting Girls’ Education

Dear Prime Minister,

Your government’s decision to reduce the aid budget will have serious consequences for children around the world whose futures depend on education. The most severe cuts, in the words of International Development Minister Baroness Chapman, are “likely to be on education and gender”: it is girls’ futures, in other words, that are most at risk.

Education transforms lives. It gives children the tools to shape their own futures. It is also a smart investment: every £1 spent on girls’ education and rights brings an estimated return of £2.80. Just one additional year of school can boost a girl’s future earnings by 20%. Education is a global public good that is also firmly in Britain’s interest: it reduces conflict, builds resilience against climate change, and helps our partners build their human capital and their economies. For girls like Mapenzi in the Democratic Republic of Congo – whose schooling was only possible thanks to a UK-funded project – education is the difference between poverty and possibility.

The UK was widely respected for its decades-long leadership on global education, from helping to set up global funds and partnerships to expand access to education to supporting 19.8 million children to gain an education over the last decade. You promised to put Britain “back on the world stage”. Yet this decision risks doing exactly the opposite, at a time when 272 million children are still out of school around the world. In Afghanistan, girls’ secondary education remains banned altogether. Now is hardly the time for the UK to deny millions more children an education. 

Public finances are tight. It is true too that aid accounts for only a small share of countries’ education spending, and is no silver bullet. Certainly, more must be done to help lower income countries escape debt traps and spend properly on their own public services. But in the past, modest investments in global education from Britain’s aid budget have led to far greater domestic spending by lower income countries, as well as mobilising additional finance. They can do so again. And in emergencies, education is not a luxury – it’s a lifeline.  

We urge you, Prime Minister, not to step back now. Please, do not turn your back on the millions of children who still need a chance to learn.

Signed:

Yasmin Ali (Chartered Engineer and Author) 

Prof. Kwame Akyeampong (International Education & Development, The Open University)

Dr Noam Angrist (Academic Director, University of Oxford) 

Helen Arney (Science communicator & presenter) 

Dr Raj Arora 

Andrea Bradley (General Secretary, Scottish Trades Union Congress) 

Andy Brock (Former Managing Director, Cambridge Education) 

Dr Peter Colenso (Former Head of Human Development, DFID)

Richard Curtis (British filmmaker, director & producer) 

Foday Dumbuya (Founder & Creative Director of LABRUM, Winner of Queen Elizabeth award for British design) 

Helen Fielding (Creator of the Bridget Jones novels and movies, Save The Children Ambassador) 

Martha Lane Fox (Entrepreneur) 

Misan Harriman (Photographer, filmmaker & Save the Children ambassador) 

Nick Hewer (TV Presenter, Street Child Patron) 

Natasha Kaplinsky (Broadcaster, Save The Children Ambassador)

Dr Vee Kativhu (Youtube Sensation, United Nations Young Leader, Founder of Empowered by Vee) 

Daniel Kebede (General Secretary, National Education Union) 

Myleene Klass (Musician & Broadcaster, Save the Children ambassador) 

Gabrielle Lemaire (Vice President, Didier Drogba Foundation) 

Annie Lennox (Singer-songwriter, activist & Co-Founder of The Circle) 

Lesley-Anne Long (Chief Strategist, Wonderfuture)

Maggie MacDonnell (Former winner of the Global Teacher Prize) 

Siobhan McSweeney (Actor & Presenter) 

Barbara Payne OBE (Former DFID Senior Education Adviser)

Joely Richardson (Actor, Save the Children ambassador) 

Prof. Pauline Rose OBE (International Education, University of Cambridge)

Laura Savage (Executive Director, International Education Funders Group)

Raaki Shah (CEO, The Circle) 

Prof. Kevin Watkins (Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, London School of Economics)

Prof. Sir Myles Wickstead KCMG CBE

Prof. Tassew Woldehanna (Addis Ababa University and Ethiopian Policy Studies Institute)

Matt Wrack (Acting General Secretary, NASUWT)

Malala Yousafzai