All 30 Tory rebels defying Boris Johnson's aid cuts that 'will kill thousands'

Boris Johnson faces a furious Tory revolt tonight over his “devastating” cuts to foreign aid during the Covid crisis.

Thirty Conservatives have signed an amendment that would force him to return to spending 0.7% of national income on aid from January.

They include ex-Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Johnson’s 2019 leadership rival Jeremy Hunt and former minister David Davis.

Mr Davis today warned the cuts mean “thousands will die” and said he was “pretty confident” he could win the vote.

Defeat would be an international humiliation for Boris Johnson just days before he hosts the G7 summit of world leaders in Cornwall.

The MPs need around a dozen more Tories to back the amendment in a formal vote to cancel out the PM’s 85-strong working majority.

Scroll down for the full list of MPs

A woman carrying clean water on a bicycle in Central Java (file photo)
(Image: NurPhoto/PA Images)

But the vote will only be held tonight if the Commons Speaker decides the amendment – to the obscure Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) Bill – is deemed “in scope”.

Even then, the 30 Tories who’ve signed it in advance do not have to vote for it.

They could back out if, say, the government offers a compromise by saying it will voluntarily restore aid spending in January.

Mr Johnson betrayed the Tory manifesto pledge to spend 0.7% of national income on foreign aid, cutting it to 0.5% in November.

The government has claimed the cut was temporary due to Covid – but Tory minister Baroness Sugg quit her role in protest and the move was condemned by figures from Malala Yousafzai to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Mr Davis told BBC Radio 4: “You’ve got massive cuts in clean water.. dirty water kills more children worldwide than almost anything else… you’ve got cuts in funding for food, people are starving, a quarter of a million people.

“Thousands will die – large numbers of children.”

Speaking to Sky News he added: “I am pretty confident we will win whatever the whips try and do, if the amendment is called.”

Father of the House of Commons Sir Peter Bottomley told Times Radio: “I am not a rebel. The government does not need to rebel against me.

“I’m standing for government policy. I’m standing for the Conservative manifesto.

“If the government don’t find the way forward and if the speaker allows the amendment to come, I believe government should be defeated, and will be defeated.

“And then some people saying we’ll go for a Trump type approach, and rest on the knee jerk reactions of those who don’t like aid, don’t like foreigners, don’t like black people, don’t want to help the poor.

“I don’t want to mischaracterise everybody who’s got other views to my own. But frankly the government doesn’t need to get into that.”

David Davis today warned the cuts mean “thousands will die”
(Image: PA)

The Government has blamed economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic for its aid decision.

It expects just under £10 billion to be allocated to departments for aid spending in 2021/22.

Solicitor General for England and Wales Lucy Frazer said the pandemic had forced the Government to make “tough decisions” as she defended the decision to reduce the overseas aid budget, insisting the law did allow for the temporary reduction.

“The pandemic has forced us to make tough decisions and that’s why we’ve said we’ll temporarily reduce the amount that we’ll spend,” she told Times Radio.

Jeremy Hunt is among the MPs challenging the government
(Image: PA)

“It does say in the legislation that we commit to 0.7% but that can be varied if the fiscal or economic circumstances suggest that it should, and that is the circumstances we find ourselves in.”

But Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “It would be in the Prime Minister’s interests if they just admitted they got this one wrong and move on, and started focusing on the G7, which is really important.”