Keir Starmer commits to reversal of ‘misguided’ DfID and Foreign Office merger

Keir Starmer said there were ‘so many reasons’ to bring back the Department for International Development. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Keir Starmer has pledged to bring back the Department for International Development (DfID) if Labour win the next election, saying that its merger with the Foreign Office was “totally misguided”.

DfID was subsumed into the Foreign Office in 2020 under Boris Johnson’s government, which then proceeded to slash overseas aid from 0.7% to 0.5% of gross national income.