Description
This paper focuses on why international development was downgraded by the Conservative Party as a policy area under Boris Johnson’s premiership. This outcome is indicated by two significant policy shifts in 2020: merging the Department for International Development (DfID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and announcing that the UK would intentionally miss the statutory target of spending 0.7% of GNI on international development. The paper presents an original analysis of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons 2010-2020, tracing how Conservative MPs arguments about the purpose of UK aid policy and the right mechanisms for delivering it evolved over time under three Prime Ministers. The paper identifies two key trends over the period. The first is a growing promotion of a ‘win-win’ aid policy that needed to be seen to benefit the UK directly as well as delivering on development targets. The second is increased focus on bringing other departments into both aid policy and aid spending. Taken together the paper argues that ultimately these two trends, evidenced by which Conservative MPs discussed aid policy in the chamber and how, undermined the case for an independent DfID and a ring-fenced spending target, creating conditions ripe for reform when an aid-sceptic Prime Minister took office.
