Penny Mordaunt has claimed that “heroic” British efforts to tackle an outbreak of plague in Madagascar helped to save thousands of lives.

The international development secretary said efforts to control the spread of plague, which killed more than 200 people on the island last year, “averted a catastrophe”.

Funding from the Department for International Development (DfID) to the World Health Organization helped to provide the Madagascan government with specialist support in the early stages of the outbreak.

DfID and the Department of Health and Social Care provided three experts who flew to the African island to provide advice on monitoring, infection prevention and control, through safe burial and airport screening.

The WHO sent out 114 experts and 1.2m doses of antibiotics, and set up nine treatment centres.

In her first appearance before the international development committee, Mordaunt said DfID had “managed to stop an outbreak of the black death in Madagascar”.

She said: “It was our phenomenal preparedness, our swift response and our expertise that has literally saved thousands of lives and averted a catastrophe.

“That heroic action, I want every British citizen to feel a real pride in.”

Insisting that she was always conscious of the responsibility that goes with spending public money, Mordaunt added: “It is the British people, ultimately, that enabled that heroic action.”



British aid also helped avert famine in Somalia last year as well as stopping the spread of Ebola, she told MPs.

Mordaunt confirmed the government’s pledge to continue to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid – which last year totalled £13.4bn – and said she was commited to DfID remaining a stand-alone government department.

MPs raised concerns that Mordaunt’s “Brexit-ready” strategy of using aid to boost trade with developing countries could signal a move towards “tied aid”.

“No, it doesn’t” she said, citing her work with Liam Fox, the trade secretary, on the issue. “I’ve seen tied aid around the world and it doesn’t work. We don’t need the help, we can compete and we should compete.”

Mordaunt said poverty reduction remained the key purpose of aid. “This is our core mission, this is what we are here to do,” she said.

The MP for Portsmouth North said she had made important changes to enable ministers to be better informed in “real time” about global crisises such as the persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. These included a weekly meeting at which ministers hear from operational teams around the world.

The British government was criticised by the international development committee last week for an “unacceptable failure” to respond to the Rohingya crisis quickly enough.

Matthew Rycroft, DfID’s new permanent secretary, who also appeared before the committee, said the department would collaborate with other ministries that spend British aid money to ensure DfID got the “best bang for our buck”. In 2016, departments other than DfID accounted for 18% of the UK’s aid spend. Some humanitarian organisations have expressed concern that this money is not managed as well or transparently as when funding goes through DfID.

Rycroft, the former UK permanent representative to the UN, said he brought to DfID a passionate commitment to the sustainable development goals, a belief in the multi-lateral system, and a desire to see the reform of a humanitarian system that was not up to the challenges of the 21st century. The UK was leading UN reform, he said.