‘Grotesquely tone-deaf’: Tory minister lambasted for asking Boris Johnson to spend aid money on new royal yachts

Penny Mordaunt accused of ‘delusional desire’ to return to empire, after requesting overseas development cash for two luxury vessels

Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt (Getty)

A cabinet minister has sparked outrage from opposition parties after asking Boris Johnson to use some of the government’s overseas aid budget on two new yachts to replace the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt has written to the prime minister urging him to consider two successor vessels to HMY Britannia – arguing it would be within Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) rules to spend aid money on the project.

The Tory MP for Portsmouth North claimed the ships would offer a “safe and secure” place for the royal family and government officials to stay on overseas visits, since the Britannia had been decommissioned by the Labour government in 1997.

Labour MP Peter Kyle said the idea was “grotesquely tone-deaf”, considering the damage the coronavirus crisis is doing to the economy.

The shadow justice minister tweeted: “Imagine the post-crash, post-Covid world with public finances stretched, debt piling up and public services in need of rebuilding – and government take money from aid to buy a super-yacht.”

The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford was also scathing. “Never mind aid for the world’s poorest, we can build a yacht,” he said. “This is a delusional desire to do nothing more than return to the spirit of empire.”

Liberal Democrat peer Sarah Ludford, the party’s Brexit spokesperson, said it was a “ridiculous” idea designed to appeal to the Tory base. “I detect a smokescreen to distract from considerable concessions in EU talks.”

Earlier this week Mr Johnson announced he was scrapping the Department for International Development (DfID) and handing control of the aid budget to the Foreign Office.

In her letter to Mr Johnson, Ms Mourdant argued two new yachts would be “eligible” for overseas aid funding. The former DfID minister said she had previously argued for new royal vessels which could act as a “floating office” for her department.

She claimed “highly flexible vessels … could be part funded from the ODA budget in partnership with private, research, commercial and charitable funds”.

Mr Johnson is also facing opposition anger over government plans to repaint the prime minister’s jet in a red, white and blue jet at a cost of almost £1 million.

The Liberal Democrats said it was “a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money, while the SNP described it as an “utterly unacceptable use of public funds”.