Financial Times: Theresa May says Tories will keep 0.7% overseas aid target
“Theresa May has promised to maintain Britain’s commitment to spend 0.7 percent of its national income on overseas aid, dashing the hopes of some Tory MPs that she would divert a portion of the £13.3bn budget to domestic priorities. Mrs. May’s announcement on Friday came just days after Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, urged the prime minister to retain the aid pledge in the Tory manifesto, saying that any cuts would ‘cost lives’…” (Parker, 4/21).

The Guardian: Foreign aid 0.7% pledge will remain, says Theresa May
“… ‘Let’s be clear, the 0.7 percent commitment remains and will remain,’ [May] said during a factory visit in her Maidenhead constituency. ‘What we need to do, though, is to look at how that money will be spent and make sure that we are able to spend that money in the most effective way. I’m very proud of the record we have, of the children around the world who are being educated as a result of what the British taxpayer is doing in terms of international aid’…” (Elgot/Walker, 4/21).

VOA News: Philanthropist Bill Gates Sounds Warning on Cuts to Development Aid
“The founder of Microsoft, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, has given a passionate defense of foreign aid while voicing fears the political climate in the U.S. and in Britain could result in cuts to aid budgets. In a speech this week in London, he warned that withdrawing aid would ‘create a leadership vacuum that others will fill.’ … In a speech at London’s Royal United Services Institute this week, he voiced fears that the political tide is turning against foreign aid…” (Ridgwell, 4/22).