Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The vote to cut foreign aid is looking tight

Things are looking tight this morning for the government’s vote on aid spending. Ministers were hoping that springing the vote on rebels at the last minute might help to peel away some softer MPs, and there’s a list doing the rounds this morning of 14 backbenchers who’ve said they are supporting a compromise which would mean the government committing to restoring the 0.7 per cent target when economic conditions improve, using OBR forecasts to gauge when that is.

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The MPs backing the government’s foreign aid compromise

The rebels feel the government is already being misleading about who it has pulled over to its side


As I’ve written before, a commitment to the cut being temporary was something that the rebels knew would satisfy many among their number, though the rebel’s ringleader Andrew Mitchell was scathing about this deal on the Today programme this morning, saying: ‘The Treasury are saying they will provide certain conditions for the return.

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