We benefited from international kindness 75 years ago – now is not the time to turn our backs on others

It’s a dereliction of duty if we fail to help others like we were helped in the wake of the Second World War, writes Laurie Lee

‘Prime minister, to ensure we don’t pull the rug underneath hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest, the time to act is now’ (AFP via Getty Images)

This week marks the 75^th anniversary of the first Care package being sent from the US to Europe to help families suffering at the end of the Second World War. Around 400,000 packages eventually arrived in the UK, highlighting that the international community was there for us when we needed them most. And now it would be a dereliction of duty if we fail to do the same.

It’s late in the day, but there is still time for the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to change his mind on cutting foreign aid, and I believe he might.

Why? Because it’s only just dawning on him just how terrible the impact of these cuts would be in practice. Despite the lack of transparency from the Foreign Office, it is now becoming clear to those of us working on the “frontline” of international development that these aid cuts will, tragically, cost hundreds of thousands of lives.