LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will merge the Foreign Office and its international development ministry while retaining a commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on development aid, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.
The decision was immediately criticised by opponents who said it was a deliberate distraction from the government’s coronavirus response and would diminish Britain’s overseas influence.
Johnson said it was removing a false divide between two overlapping departments – the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development – and would give aid a new prominence.
“This will unite our aid with our diplomacy and bring them together in our international effort,” he told parliament.
The new ministry will be called the Foreign, Commonweath and Development Office and will launch in September.
“Abolishing DFID diminishes Britain’s place in the world,” opposition Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer said. “The prime minister should stop these distractions and get on with the job of tackling the health and economic crisis we currently face.”
(Reporting by William James; writing by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison and Kate Holton)
