Facts
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed that “the United Kingdom is doubling our aid funding for Palestinian civilians.”
The government announced an additional £30 million in aid donations to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) – which refers to Gaza and the West Bank – in October 2023.
This comes in addition to the existing aid commitment of £27 million.
However, as Full Fact notes, “while the recent additional commitments may have doubled the total aid for the OPTs this year … the amount of aid funding for the OPTs is still considerably less than in previous years before the UK’s overall aid spending target was reduced in 2021.
The government’s aid commitment to the OPTs was £93.5 million in 2019/20.
Verdict
While Sunak is correct that the UK has doubled its aid funding for the OTPs, he has not accurately contextualised these figures. UK aid commitments to the OTPs are significantly lower than in previous years.
We emailed Rishi Sunak’s office and Downing Street offering them the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.
Additional Note
Notice the evolving difference between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s methodology of deceit. Johnson’s lies were often shameless fabrications, for instance the claim of 40 new hospitals.
Sunak’s lies tend to be more subtle, devious, and carefully constructed. They often contain an element of truth, which has been twisted or repackaged to create an entirely false impression in the mind of the voter. To put it another way: there’s something cunning about Sunak’s falsehoods, as if he knows he isn’t quite telling the truth.
In this case, his sleight of hand here involved selective use of figures. While Sunak was correct to say that the amount of aid funding for occupied Palestinian Territories had doubled in 2023, it was still considerably less than in previous years before the UK’s overall aid spending target was reduced in 2021.