New development minister mounts staunch defence of 0.7% commitment and says DfID will keep spending on climate change

Rory Stewart, the new secretary of state for international development, has reiterated his support for the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.

Stewart, the former prisons minister, who was appointed to his new role on Wednesday night after Penny Mordaunt replaced the sacked Gavin Williamson as defence minister, also pledged to put climate change at the heart of his work.

While Mordaunt was an aid budget sceptic who wanted to overhaul the way the Department for International Development (DfID) spends money, Stewart identified the foreign aid target as “hugely important”. His stance stands in stark contrast to that of his predecessor, who believed the 0.7% target was unsustainable and called for programmes to be jointly funded with other departments, and for greater private sector investment.

Asked for his response to colleagues who believe Britain’s £14.1bn aid budget should be cut or used to encourage trade, Stewart told ITV’s political editor Robert Peston on Wednesday night: “It’s hugely important, also after Brexit. We have to come out of Brexit, proud global Britain.

“Obviously, we are going through a difficult stage, our relationship with Europe is difficult, we’re going to have to make a new relationship with the world, and having some money to do it, some resources to do it – to put Britain on the world stage again – is hugely important.”

Climate change was among the most important challenges facing DfID, said Stewart, who expressed agreement with Jeremy Corbyn’s view that the world is confronting a climate change emergency.

“People can get into the arguments about the language, but it’s a cataclysm that the ice sheet is going at 10 times the predicted rate and we’ll lose 30 or 40% of species on earth by 2050 … the work that DfID does internationally is right at the heart of it.

“I would argue that spending, not 7%, not 1%, but 0.7% of your GDP [sic] on that kind of issue really makes a difference, not just to the planet but to you and me.”

DfID has said it is committed to spending £3.6bn on climate change between 2016/17 and 2020/21. The government’s overall budget on climate change over the same period is £5.8bn.

Aid charities welcomed Stewart’s appointment.

Gavin Crowden, World Vision UK’s head of policy, advocacy, and campaigns, said Stewart’s “experience in this field stands him in good stead for the task ahead” and hoped he would “put UK aid back on track”.

“I fear that Penny Mordaunt, at times, lost sight of the real purpose of aid.”

Stewart, who was a joint minister for DfID and the Foreign Office before moving to the Ministry of Justice, was elected Tory MP for Penrith and the Borders in 2010. His work for the the Foreign Office included spells in Indonesia and Montenegro.

In a reflection of his adventurous nature – between 2000 and 2002, Stewart undertook a 6,000-mile trek through Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran before travelling to Iraq to help write the country’s constitution – Brad Pitt’s production company bought the rights to his life story for a biopic.