Foreign aid: PM faces pre-G7 bid to reverse cut
By Hazel Shearing
image copyrightPA Media
The prime minister could face defeat in the Commons later over government cuts to the UK s overseas aid budget, at the start of a week in which he hosts the G7 summit in Cornwall.
More than 30 rebel Tory MPs want Boris Johnson to restore a commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on international development.
Ministers reduced it to 0.5% this year - a cut of almost £4bn.
The government s supporters say the cut is temporary, necessary and popular.
The Conservative Party committed to spending 0.7% in its 2019 manifesto - but ministers say it is hard to justify given record levels of peacetime borrowing during the pandemic.