Brown: Halting WHO funding is act of self-harm by US

US President Donald Trump must be persuaded to back the World Health Organisation (WHO) by his colleagues in the G20, the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur that the president's decision to withdraw funding from the organisation was an act of self-harm by the US.

Mr Brown said: "To deal with this locally in any country, we have got to act globally. If the World Health Organisation did not exist, it would have to be created.

“It is our duty to try to persuade the Americans that this solidarity is actually in the self-interest."