The government has managed to see off a back-bench rebellion aiming to block the cut in foreign aid from 0.7 per cent of GDP to 0.5 per cent.
The immediate consequence is a continuation of the already considerable cuts to the UK’s international development budget over the course of the past year.
While Rishi Sunak’s spending plans have survived their first big parliamentary test, the fact that so many MPs were willing to rebel shows that bigger challenges are yet to come.
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