Conservative Party MPs told the UK government that thousands of people around the world will die unless Britain restores its foreign aid budget.
More than 30 MPs, including former prime minister Theresa May, are preparing for a showdown with ministers on Monday as they intend to support an amendment that would require the government to reverse its cut to international aid to 0.5 per cent of national income.
The government said the “temporary” cut from 0.7 per cent was needed, given that the pandemic had caused a "once-in-300-year economic interruption".
However, dozens of aid agencies said the cuts will cause further suffering in countries such as Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.
The rebel MPs are “cautiously optimistic” they will succeed in forcing a reversal – inflicting the first defeat for Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the House of Commons since 2019.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is yet to decide if their amendment should be put to a vote.
David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said on Monday “we will win” because a majority of MPs wanted the cuts reversed.
He said the cuts to clean water and food programmes would have “devastating consequences around the world”.
“You have massive cuts in clean water – 10 million people lose their access,” he told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme.
“Cuts in funding for food … again, thousands will die, large numbers of them children. I’ve long been a critic of aid spending but doing it this way is so harmful.
“If you want to take a realpolitik argument, we are throwing away enormous influence, particularly in Africa where there is a very ideological battle with China. I mean morally, this is a devastating thing for us to have done."
Another of the dissenting Conservatives, Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said they were “cautiously optimistic” they could defeat the cuts.
“The reality is that [we’re] trying to make sure that Britain’s foreign footprint, that global Britain, really means something,” he said.
Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, said the “eyes of the world are truly upon us” when the UK hosts the G7 summit in Cornwall later this week.
“But, in this moment, Britain is found wanting, because we have removed a foundational piece of our own global leadership. Britain is the only G7 nation cutting aid this year,” he wrote in The Guardian.
“The cuts are already having a devastating effect on the ground, with projects being cancelled, clinics being closed, teachers being sacked. In crisis situations, these cuts will result in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.”
It is understood the rebels are willing to offer an olive branch to the government if ministers guarantee to return foreign aid spending to 0.7 per cent next year.
