Sunak hopes to ‘flex’ rules over aid money

THE Chancellor is pushing to divert billions of pounds of aid money to support Britain’s diplomatic, trade and military objectives abroad.

Government sources yesterday denied reports that Rishi Sunak has secured Boris Johnson’s agreement to scrap the controversial target to spend 0.7 per cent of the UK’s income on aid.

But Mr Sunak is looking to ‘flex’ the rules around aid spending to allow it to be used to fund projects normally paid for by other departments, such as the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence.

The £15billion aid budget is due to be cut by almost £3billion this year due to the impact of coronavirus on Britain’s GDP.

One Whitehall source said there were ‘lots of options’ around how the aid budget is calculated.

Another said: ‘There is room to make it better aligned to our foreign policy agenda.’ Some Tory MPs yesterday seized on reports that the 0.7 per cent target could be axed completely. Ben Bradley urged ministers to remember ‘charity begins at home’, adding: ‘There is no excuse for wasting taxpayers money sending it to rich countries including China.’

But Government sources pointed out that the PM guaranteed the target would stay in last year’s election manifesto.

Mr Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also committed to keeping the target in June, when it was announced that the Department for International Development would be merged with the Foreign Office.

A source said: ‘The idea that Rishi has got the support of the PM and Foreign Secretary to scrap the 0.7 per cent target is just not true.’