Mr Gates doesn't do small talk.

Tycoon urges UK to maintain lead role in helping the world's poorest

- JASON BEATTIE

BILL Gates wants to talk about money. This is not a surprising subject for one of the richest people on earth but the money he wants to talk about is not his fortune but the lack of funding for the world's poorest.

What he describes as the "golden age" of giving is over. In the first 20 years of this century the richest nations donated a record amount in aid.

As a result, millions of children were lifted out of poverty, fewer people died from preventable diseases such as malaria and TB, and the number of under fives dying from malnutrition was halved from 10 million to five million.

Then the pandemic struck. Since then the US, Britain, France and Germany have all cut the amount they spend on international development.

This is why Gates is in London.

He has come to urge Keir Starmer to maintain Britain's global leadership in helping the world's poorest. "It is sad to say the key limiting factor as I look to the next 10 years will be aid generosity. The world looks to the British example," Gates says.

The plea comes amid fears Rachel Reeves will freeze aid spending when she delivers her October 30 Budget.

Gates stepped down from Microsoft's board in 2020 to focus on his philanthropic work.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation he set up 25 years ago has given hundreds of millions of pounds to aid programmes around the world.

He has also signed the Giving Pledge and will give at least half of his £80billion fortune to good causes.

But Gates has not completely renounced the billionaire lifestyle.

Our interview is conducted in a suite of offices in one of London's most exclusive hotels. Outside there are at least a dozen aides and security personnel. Inside there are bowls of fruit and fancy looking cakes.