Scrapping the overseas aid ministry is an "unnecessary and expensive distraction" that will harm the UK's reputation, nearly 200 charities warned today.
Groups including Save the Children, ActionAid and Tearfund wrote to the Government asking it to reconsider rolling the Department for International Development into the Foreign Office.
The letter reads: "Abolishing one of the world's most effective and respected government departments at a time when the world is in need of global leadership undermines our response to Covid-19 and suggests the UK is turning its back on the world's poorest people. “It also risks us being less able to respond to the great challenges of our time, such as global health security and climate change." The