A senior Tory frontbencher has slapped down Robert Jenrick for claiming the UK’s international aid budget is “bloated”.
The Conservative leadership contender made the claim in his speech to the party’s annual conference last week.
He said: “Why is it that so much of the British establishment seems to put Britain last?
“I am told that we only have enough munitions to last a few weeks in war, and yet our country is giving foreign aid to parts of the world richer than our own.
“That’s absolutely within the rules, but it’s an enormous amount of money, and Jeremy Hunt was persuaded to provide additional money to compensate for that.”
Laura Kuenssberg replied: “So Robert Jenrick’s wrong about that then?”
Mitchell said: “I understand what he’s saying about the importance of increasing defence expenditure, but I’m afraid to describe the development budget as bloated is simply not true.”
Jenrick is the bookies’ favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.
In a separate interview this morning, Mitchell told Sky News that he would be voting for one of his rival candidates, Tom Tugendhat, when Tory MPs are next balloted on Tuesday.