UK will lose respect overseas with Boris Johnson’s ‘mistaken’ decision to scrap foreign aid department, David Cameron warns

Former prime minister joins aid groups in rare criticism of his successor

David Cameron has attacked Boris Johnson’s decision to axe the Department for International Development (DfiD), warning the UK’s reputation will suffer.

In a rare criticism of his successor, the former prime minister said the move would “mean less expertise, less voice for development at the top table and ultimately less respect for the UK overseas”.

Mr Cameron spoke out as three former Tory international development secretaries joined howls of protest over the “merger” with the Foreign Office, from September.

Andrew Mitchell condemned the “extraordinary mistake”, saying: “It would destroy one of the most effective and respected engines of international development anywhere in the world.”

Justine Greening attacked a distraction from the fightback against coronavirus, warning: “People will find it hard to see why it’s a priority to have a departmental organisation.”

And Rory Stewart, a former leadership contender, said: “Don’t merge the Foreign Office and Dfid. The problem is not our hugely respected development agency, but the lack of a confident coordinated UK strategy.

“Merging is bad diplomacy and worse development. Define a strategy and priorities, rather than move deckchairs in Whitehall.”

Dfid will be swallowed up, in September, into a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with Dominic Raab in charge of aid allocations.

“The foreign secretary will be empowered to decide which countries receive – or cease to receive – British aid,” Mr Johnson told MPs.

He also signalled cash currently flowing to developing countries in Africa would be siphoned off for geopolitical struggles such as resisting Russia.

“We give as much aid to Zambia as we do to Ukraine, though the latter is vital for European security,” the prime minister said, in a statement.

“We give ten times as much aid to Tanzania as we do to the six countries of the Western Balkans, who are acutely vulnerable to Russian meddling.”

The legal commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of national output on aid will be maintained, the government insisted, albeit with new priorities on how to spend it.

In response, Mr Cameron tweeted: “The prime minister is right to maintain the commitment to 0.7 – it saves lives, promotes a safer world and builds British influence. But the decision to merge the departments is a mistake.

“More could and should be done to co-ordinate aid and foreign policy, including through the National Security Council, but the end of @DFID_UK will mean less expertise, less voice for development at the top table and ultimately less respect for the UK overseas.”

The former prime minister’s commitment to international aid was, along with gay marriage, a key plank of his “detoxifying” of the Conservative party more than a decade ago.

But Mr Johnson dismissed the criticism in the Commons, telling MPs: “I profoundly disagree” – and insisting the Foreign Office/DfID split had created “an incoherence in UK foreign policy which we can now rectify”.

But he also fuelled suspicions that the move – like the attack on the removal of any statues, even of notorious slave owners – is part of a :culture war”, allegedly to distract attention from his Covid-19 response.

DfiD had become a “giant cashpoint in the sky”, Mr Johnson told MPs, failing to deliver on British interests.

Former Labour prime ministers joined the backlash, Gordon Brown protesting that DfiD was “one of the UK’s great international assets” and had “saved millions of lives”.

Tony Blair called the move ”wrong and regressive”, adding: “We created Dfid in 1997 to play a strong, important role in projecting British soft power. It has done so to general global acclaim.”

The move also triggered a furious backlash from campaigners, who accused the government of putting politics ahead of the needs of the world’s poorest.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: “It is scarcely believable that at a time when decades of progress are under threat from Covid, the prime minister has decided to scrap Dfid, a world leader in the fight against poverty.

“With half a billion people at risk of being pushed into poverty the UK should be stepping up to protect lives and but is instead choosing to step back.

“This decision puts politics above the needs of the poorest people and will mean more people around the world will die unnecessarily from hunger and disease.”

Stephanie Draper, chief executive of Bond, which represents international development organisations, said the move put the response to coronavirus pandemic at risk.

“Scrapping Dfid now puts the international response to Covid-19 in jeopardy and, at a time when we need global co-operation, risks a resurgence of the disease both abroad and here in the UK,” she said.