Boris Johnson faces fresh questions over ‘publicity stunt’ merger of overseas aid department into foreign office

Boris Johnson is facing fresh questions over his decision to axe the department responsible for overseas aid less than two months after the cabinet minister in charge said its future was secure.

The prime minister sparked an outpouring of anger when he announced plans to merge the department for international development (DfID) into the foreign office on Tuesday, a move which was condemned by three former prime ministers.

But in April, the international development secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan told a Commons committee that “what we can deliver in trying to achieve the reductions in global poverty, is well served by having both a foreign secretary and a DfID secretary”.

More than 50 Liberal Democrat politicians, including two ex-DfID ministers, have written to the prime minister to demand answers on whether she knowingly misled the committee or whether the decision had been “rushed through as a publicity stunt”.

Calling for the decision to scrap DfID to be reversed, the group warned that the UK’s international standing would be diminished by the move at a time when coronavirus was poised to wreak havoc in the world’s poorest countries.

It comes as the Speaker granted an urgent question over the merger on Thursday, allowing MPs another chance to grill ministers on the decision.

The letter said: “On 28 April, the international development secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan assured the international development committee that DFID was safe, stating, “what having a separate DFID secretary of state brings to our global leadership and respect, and what we can deliver in trying to achieve the reductions in global poverty, is well served by having both a foreign secretary and a DFID secretary”.”

“Either the secretary knowingly misled the committee, demonstrating contempt for parliament, or this decision has been rushed through as a publicity stunt, despite the devastation it could cause across the world. Neither is acceptable.”

Wendy Chamberlain, the party’s international development secretary, told The Independent: “UK aid prevents suffering. But with it taking the government to be dragged kicking and screaming to U-turn on their refusal to back free school meals over the summer holidays, their callousness evidently spans across Whitehall.”

It comes as a senior Tory said Mr Johnson took the decision to scrap DfID without consulting the rest of the cabinet.

Asked if the merger had been discussed by the prime minister’s top team, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said: “Erm, no it wasn’t.

“It’s absolutely right that it’s the prime minister’s decision, in the same way that all these machinery of government changes, as they are called, are individually made by the prime minister.”

Mr Johnson told MPs he intends to end the “artificial and outdated” distinction between diplomacy and overseas development on Tuesday, where he described the department as a “giant cashpoint in the sky”.

In a major shift, he suggested aid cash currently spent fighting poverty in Africa could be diverted towards the UK’s strategic interests, such as combatting Russia.

Downing Street confirmed that DfID will be folded into a new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in September, with foreign secretary Dominic Raab taking control of the UK’s aid budgets.

Ms Trevelyan is expected to be handed a ministerial role in the new “super-department”.