Priti Patel, the new head of the U.K. Department for International Development, rose to prominence as a vocal champion for Brexit. But she isn't sounding the call to break with European Union aid institutions just yet.
In her first parliamentary hearing as the new head of DfID, Patel addressed questions and concerns about what she plans to do with DfID’s 12 billion pound ($15.9 billion) aid budget, and what kind of relationship Britain will have with European Union development institutions as the country negotiates its exit from the EU. She allayed some fears about the U.K.’s continued support to the EU Development Fund, the EU’s largest aid vehicle of which the U.K. provides almost one-third of total funding.
“I don’t foresee any changes to our engagement in the fund,” she told members of the Parliament’s International Development Committee, with a caveat: “We’re only at the beginning of this process, but of course we will have an ongoing dialogue with partners at the commission and I fully recognize there’s no need to back away from places where we’re heavily invested.”