The Conservative politician Andrew Mitchell was ahead of his time 12 years ago when he travelled the world extolling the benefits of development aid. With a grey shock of schoolboy hair and a military officer’s manner, Mr Mitchell was equally happy commandeering private planes and piling into regular economy, as he travelled from Rwanda to Eritrea to Pakistan with a missionary zeal. When the Labour government lost power in 2010, Mr Mitchell was made international development secretary and drove home his message that prosperity should not be built on the back of the world’s poorest. He ensured that the UK was not only the first G7 country to meet the 0.7 per cent of GDP target for international aid spending – set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – but also made sure that the figure was put in law.