LONDON — Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a merger between the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Tuesday — confirming the U.K.’s development sector’s widely-held fear that he would do away with a standalone development department.
The two departments will become the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The move has been long advocated for by Johnson, along with other senior Conservative politicians, but was met with widespread condemnation by civil society and opposition politicians, as well as some within Conservative party ranks.