Theresa May blasts Boris Johnson over foreign aid cut

Theresa May blasted Boris Johnson this afternoon over his decision to slash foreign aid as she accused the Prime Minister of breaking his ‘Global Britain’ promise. 

The former premier took aim at her successor in Number 10 as she warned a £4billion cut to spending would result in initiatives being cancelled and expertise being lost in a ‘perfect storm’ of problems.

The Government has reduced aid spending to 0.5 per cent of national income instead of the 0.7 per cent pledged in the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election manifesto.

Ministers have blamed the decision on the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Mrs May told MPs this afternoon that she hoped to see aid spending return to 0.7 per cent and with it a ‘truly Global Britain that is fully engaged with the world’. 

She said that ‘sadly at the moment the message is rather different’. 

It is the second time in the space of just one month that Mrs May has taken aim at Mr Johnson. 

At the start of June she criticised the PM over his international travel traffic light system and again seized on his ‘Global Britain’ slogan to poke fun at him.      

Speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon, Mrs May said that even if the aid spending commitment is restored in future years, as ministers have said it will be, it will still be problematic because programmes and staff will have been axed this year because of the cut.

She said: ‘It seems to me we’re looking at a perfect storm where not only the money’s gone away, but actually when the time comes – and I hope it’ll be next year and the Government restores the 0.7 per cent – we actually find that the people aren’t there in the department to be able to ensure that that is being done and being done effectively.

‘So I would like to say to the minister that I would sincerely hope that we can restore the respect that we have had around the world through our funding and our expertise, restore the 0.7 per cent, look holistically at the aid spending, don’t lose Dfid (Department for International Development) expertise and then we might be able to return… as an enterprising, outward-looking and truly Global Britain that is fully engaged with the world, sadly at the moment the message is rather different.’

Mrs May also spoke about a reduction in modern slavery and girls’ education programmes before addressing the recent creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office by merging the Foreign Office and Dfid.

She said: ‘I fear that it is reducing the UK’s clout on the world stage and this cut in overseas aid is but one example of that.’