AN SNP MP has asked Boris Johnson whether he feels "no shame" over his Government's decision to cut funding by £4 billion to some of the world's poorest people.
John Nicolson pressed the Prime Minister in the Commons today after MPs voted last night to lock in reductions to spending on overseas aid, despite a rebellion by Tory MPs.
"Yesterday at the Prime Minister's instigation 333 Conservative members of the House including some of its wealthiest voted to deprive some of the world's poorest children of clean water. Education for girls programmes ... will be slashed," the MP for Ochil and South Perthshire said.
There were 332 votes from Tory members and one from Rob Roberts, who sits as an independent after being suspended from the Conservatives.
Nicolson went on: "Most people go into politics to make the world a better place but the Prime Minister seems to be an exception.
"As he reads of the anguish his decision has caused and as a father of a young child, doesn't he feel the merest hint of shame?"
Johnson replied that people should be proud of what the UK is doing for the world's poor, including with programmes for girls' education, helping countries tackle climate change and helping refugees in Yemen and Syria.
READ MORE: Ruth Davidson brands Tory colleagues 'bloody disgrace' as UK cuts foreign aid
He added: "We spend £10 billion a year on overseas aid alone to say nothing about what we are doing with vaccines."
MPs voted by a majority of 35 to keep the budget for international development at 0.5% of national income. But 24 Conservatives joined the SNP and Labour and other parties in an attempt to reinstate the 0.7% figure, which was in place until earlier this year.
Johnson said the cut was needed to keep public debt down during the pandemic. The government has faced cross-party criticism over the reduction - which amounts to almost £4bn - including from all the UK's living former prime ministers, including Theresa May who rebelled in the Commons' vote.
Douglas Ross and his group of Scottish Tory MPs all voted with the government.
Many Conservative MPs have spoken out against the move, announced last November despite a commitment to spending 0.7% in the party's 2019 election manifesto. Meeting the figure was made law in 2015.
Charities such as Oxfam and ActionAid have warned that projects are being called off as a result of the cuts. But the government won by 333 votes to 298, following a three-hour debate.
Other Conservative rebels included ex-cabinet ministers Karen Bradley, Jeremy Hunt, David Davis, Stephen Crabb, Damian Green and Andrew Mitchell.
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