On World Aids Day the SNP has demanded that the Tory government reverse its cuts to overseas funding.

Ministers are under pressure from the opposition benches to reinstate the 83 per cent cut to UNAids funding — a consequence of its decision to break its manifesto commitment and cut aid budgets from the UN target of 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent.

In September, a parliamentary report laid bare the devastating impact the cuts were having on the global fight against HIV — saying they would “reverse decades of hard-won progress” in cutting transmission and death rates across the world. 

The SNP has also called on the British government to invest more funding into developing a vaccine based on MRNA, following the success of the Covid vaccine rollout.

SNP MP Chris Law said the move is punishing the world’s most vulnerable.

He said: “Life-saving programmes should not be slashed at any time, but they are more important than ever in the middle of a global health pandemic.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said Britain remains a world leading aid donor, spending more than £10 billion this year.