Yvette Cooper to warn world ‘sleepwalking into food crisis’ over Iran conflict upheaval

TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say The Foreign Secretary will say: We cannot risk tens of millions of people going hungry because one country has hijacked an international shipping lane.Iran's continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz while the agriculture clock is ticking shows why we need urgent global pressure to get the strait reopened, fertiliser and fuel moving and ease the cost of living pressures.Tehran blockaded the waterway, which runs between the Islamic Republic and the Arabian peninsula, after the US and Iran conducted aerial bombing raids against Iran. The closure sent global oil prices surging – and now poses a threat to Britain's food security.Several of the world's largest fertiliser factories, thanks to the strait's closure, has threatened to send food prices skyrocketing.The Foreign Office has warned that delivery of criticial emergency aid could be necessary for developing nations if the waterway was not opened soon.At the Global Partnerships Conference in London today, Ms Cooper will set out her department's approach to development - while the Government cuts foreign aid funding.The summit, which will be jointly hosted by the UK and South Africa, will set out a partnered approach and tehnical advice to solve the impending crisis.IRAN CRISIS LATEST:Iran to vote on putting £43m bounty on heads of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu'Clock is ticking': Donald Trump warns Iran there 'won't be anything left of them' amid peace talksIran suspected of drone strike on UAE nuclear power plant that sparked massive fireDevelopment Minister Baroness Jenny Chapman said: Countries want to have more control, move beyond aid, attract investment, strengthen their own health and education systems, and take charge of their own futures.Traditional development finance alone cannot meet that call, indeed it never could. Nor can it respond to the scale of today’s challenges.We need to bring new ideas and a broader coalition of partners to the table.Back in 2025, Britain said it would reduce its target for foreign aid spending to 0.3 per cent by 2027 to boost defence spending.Meanwhile, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage vowed that his party would cut foreign aid by 90 per cent, reducing it to £1billion a year.But the former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt, told the People's Channel that any cut to foreign aid was a mistake.He previously told GB News: I firmly believe that it's a strategic error of considerable proportion to have cut our overseas aid budget from 0.7 per cent of GDP to just 0.3 per cent, which it is now, because the money that the UK was spending around the world was helping prevent other problems.Problems which result in migration. Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter