Mordaunt wants to make the UK’s international aid commitments less reliant on the public purse

A UK Tory minister wants to tear up the way foreign aid is sourced and allocated.

It has been reported that Penny Mordaunt MP, the international development secretary, has told cabinet colleagues that the way the UK gives out aid is “unsustainable”.

Instead Mordaunt wants to make the UK’s international aid commitments less reliant on the public purse.

The Times reported that she believes in a shift from spending to fundraising and that philanthropists and the private sector should fund foreign aid.

Mordaunt, who is in charge of the Department for International Development (Dfid), is well known as a long-standing critic of the aid system, and had previously she had to be blocked by Prime Minister Theresa May from removing the budget from Unesco, the world heritage organisation.

Nick Dearden, director of campaigning charity Global Justice Now, savaged the MP’s position.

He said: “Once again we witness the obscene sight of a British international development secretary sacrificing the fight against global poverty for her own advancement.

"Mordaunt’s cynical briefing of the press that she is going to take a Britain first approach to the aid budget is an attempt to throw red meat to Conservative backbenchers whose support she will need in a future leadership contest.

“Given that she’s employed to reduce poverty around the world, this is nothing short of scandalous. It is time for Theresa May to appoint an international development secretary who actually believes in the department’s mission.”