LONDON — A host of Britain’s overseas security projects are due to end this month — and there’s no clear signal from the cash-strapped Labour government on whether they will continue.
As Chancellor Rachel Reeves reaches for government savings, POLITICO has identified more than 35 schemes — such as those aimed at preventing ISIS recruitment and weapons smuggling — inherited from the previous Conservative administration which come to an end in March. Some will only be renewed if individual Whitehall departments can fund them, at a time when drastic spending cuts are being planned.
The projects are part of the U.K.’s Integrated Security Fund (ISF), which itself faces a renewed squeeze after Britain slashed its overseas aid budget to boost defense spending.
The ISF was launched with a near £1 billion budget in 2023 with a remit to “tackle some of the most complex national security challenges facing the U.K. and its partners” at home and abroad.
The current portfolio of schemes covers a vast number of international challenges. That includes tackling drug and weapons smuggling, clamping down on the funding of terrorism, helping Ukraine investigate war crimes, preventing escalating tensions in the South China Sea and Pakistan, and conducting early-stage counterterrorism against the Islamic State in the Middle East.
Not all of the scheme’s funded projects are public. Several are kept secret to reduce risks to ongoing military and intelligence operations. Some are also kept under wraps because of difficult questions should the U.K. government be seen to be funding work in specific countries — and to protect NGOs that do not want to be revealed as working in certain parts of the world.
Last month, ministers informed Parliament’s International Development Select Committee that ISF projects had all been asked to model the impact of cuts for the next financial year, given the “financial constraints” on the fund and across government.
Two officials confirmed that these decisions were made even before the government then decided to cut its commitment to international aid in late February. That move prompted U.K. Development Minister Anneliese Dodds to resign.
A government spokesperson said: “The Integrated Security Fund is designed to fund time-limited, short-term projects, and invests in innovative activity that tackles some of the most complex national security challenges facing the U.K.”
Highest priority threats
The ISF is meant to rapidly respond to emerging threats, sometimes via experimental programs that the U.K. aid budget alone cannot. In addition, much of the fund — around £300 million — is devoted to aiding peacekeeping missions, including through the United Nations.
With the cliff-edge of funding for projects looming, the U.K. government declined to comment on which projects will be continued, or to say how much of the fund’s budget will be spared cuts for the upcoming financial year.
Projects scheduled to end this year include key parts of Britain’s overseas counterterrorism strategy. An international version of the U.K.’s controversial PREVENT anti-terror program works in countries including Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to spot and stop Islamic State radicalization in refugee camps and detention facilities. Program summaries suggest that this scheme has helped to reduce violent extremism.
More experimental programs include a counter-propaganda unit set up to disrupt the messaging of Syria’s then-leader Bashar al-Assad, ISIS and Iran across the Middle East through local radio stations and social media.
Ripple effect
Several NGO partners delivering the government’s schemes told POLITICO their projects have either already had their funding discontinued, or that they have had no clarity on whether they would continue.
Conciliation Resources, an international peace-building organization, said they had not yet secured government funding for their work to support ongoing peace negotiations in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.
In Sri Lanka, the ISF’s project to remove landmines in the region could also be under threat. A spokesperson for the HALO post-conflict NGO said they were concerned about potential cuts to ISF funding.
“Any reductions in funding will also delay the timeline for the country to become mine free — which could be achieved by 2030 if current funding levels were fully sustained,” they said, adding: “The U.K. has played a leading role in supporting Sri Lanka getting to this stage for the past 19 years.”
Lewis Brooks, U.K. policy and advocacy adviser at conflict prevention organization Saferworld, said: “The ripple effect of cuts to these programs could be devastating for efforts to halt the spread of conflict and insecurity.
“Any single one of the programs would have multiple projects now at risk, for example de-mining projects; dialogs to get warring factions to commit to peace; counter-smuggling efforts; support to women preventing conflict escalation in their communities.
“Replicated across dozens of volatile and insecure regions [this] puts lives of some of the most vulnerable at risk and potentially fuels instability,” he added.
National security refresh
June will see a flurry of major foreign policy and national security moments for Keir Starmer’s government. Departmental budgets for 2026/27 onward are set be decided as part of Reeves’ government-wide spending review, while Starmer has committed to a new national security strategy to be published before the summer’s NATO summit.
This is expected to take in recommendations from a glut of other reviews which Labour has committed to since joining office, including audits of resilience, strategic defense, the AUKUS submarine tie-up with Australia and the U.S., international development, China and Africa policies, extremism and state threats.
These will decide the future of the ISF, with its chosen projects offering a sign of how and where Britain feels it needs to intervene abroad as Europe steps up its defense obligations in the face of a U.S. administration that is turning its attention to the Pacific.
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