Cabinet reshuffle: Charities relieved as Boris Johnson decides not to axe foreign aid department

Aid groups have spoken of their relief after the department for international development (DfID) was saved from the axe in Boris Johnson’s botched reshuffle.

But they immediately called for much-needed stability at the aid department – as Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed its fifth secretary of state in just five years.

And questions were immediately raised about some of Ms Trevelyan’s past comments about aid spending – including one apparently calling for cash to go to “hungry kids” in the UK.

Campaigners for the world’s poor had fought a hard battle to rescue DfID, which both the prime minister and Dominic Cummings, his controversial chief aide, were keen to abolish.

An alternative plan was for it to answer to the Foreign Office – foreshadowing a shift of spending towards boosting Britain’s “political and commercial objectives”.

However, DfID has emerged unscathed in a reshuffle once tipped to dramatically reshape Whitehall, although some junior ministers will be shared with the foreign office.

Bond, which represents more than 100 charities which had spoken out, welcomed “the decision to keep an independent department for international development”.

And Mike Noyes, a deputy director at ActionAid UK, said: “It’s important that the new minister is given enough time to make a real difference.

“This is the third change to the role in under a year – high turnover like this is detrimental to decision making and can ultimately have a grave impact on those in desperate need.”

In 2012, Ms Trevelyan – a staunch Brexiteer and the MP for Berwick – responded to a DfID tweet about tackling hunger in Africa by tweeting: “There r kids in NE who have no regular meals due to chaotic parents. Should they go hungry?”

A year later she praised a critical article by Tory per Lord Ashcroft on “the value (or otherwise) of the overseas aid budget”.

As recently as 2017 she highlighted Priti Patel, a former international development secretary, saying that a “waste of cash in vanity projects in far-flung lands kept me awake at night”.

Mr Johnson backing scrapping the aid department last year, saying: “If ‘Global Britain’ is going to achieve its full and massive potential then we must bring DfID to the FCO [Foreign Office].”

He also accused the department of “inevitable waste as money is shoved out of the door in order to meet the 0.7 per cent target” – raising fears its budget will be slashed.

Stephanie Draper, Bond’s chief executive, warned: “To protect the UK’s reputation as a development powerhouse, helping the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people must remain the primary focus of development aid.”

And Mr Noyes added: “The government must reinforce our position as a force for good and going forward, commit to spending aid not on furthering other department’s interests, but on supporting those most in need - especially women and girls.”