Foreign Office minister Baroness Sugg has handed in her resignation over plans to slash overseas aid.

Today Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed foreign aid will be slashed from 0.7% to 0.5% of GDP next year as part of a spending review to help pay for the coronavirus pandemic.

But Baroness Sugg is a long time supporter of sticking to the target, which the Conservative Party promised to keep in their 2019 election manifesto.

Boris Johnson has not yet accepted the resignation of the junior minister, who previously served as Number 10’s head of operations under David Cameron’s leadership.

Five former Prime Ministers, including the Baroness’s old boss, have spoken out against the Treasury’s plans, describing cutting foreign aid as both morally and politically wrong.

In a joint statement last week Cameron and Tony Blair said slashing the budget would be a ‘moral, strategic and political mistake’ which would let down the world’s poorest and diminish the UK’s standing in upcoming G7 climate change talks.

Sir John Major and Gordon Brown have both said the move will damage Britain’s international reputation and Theresa May is also understood to have told colleagues she was opposed to the plan.

Criticising Sunak’s decision, Conservative former minister Andrew Mitchell said: ‘As a result of the pandemic here in the UK, 50,000 people have died and we are rightfully moving heaven and earth to prevent more deaths here at home.

‘But is (Rishi Sunak) aware his proposed breaking of the 0.7% promise and the 30% further reduction in cash will be the cause of 100,000 preventable deaths, mainly among children?

‘This is a choice I for one am not prepared to make and none of us in this House will be able to look our children in the eye and claim we did not know what we were voting for.’

Sunak responded: ‘Obviously, (Mr Mitchell) will have heard the reasons that I set out for doing what we’re doing. I believe we can still make a difference to the world’s poorest countries with the measures that we’ve put in place.

‘I think the most pressing issue that the developing world faces at the moment is the ability to deliver and deploy a coronavirus vaccine.

‘He will know that we are the largest donor globally to the COVAX Advance Market Commitment, the global initiative which is supporting development countries’ access to vaccines.

‘I think right now that’s probably the most important thing we could be doing, we are doing it, we are leading the world in helping them tackle coronavirus. But I know he and I will carry on this conversation.’

The Archbishop of Canterbury has branded the foreign aid cut as ‘shameful and wrong’ and said it was ‘made worse by no set date for restoration’.

Justin Welby added: ‘I join others in urging MPs to reject it for the good of the poorest, and the UK’s own reputation and interest.’

However Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies said in the ‘real world’ people support the cut in foreign aid.

He told MPs: ‘Can I support the Chancellor’s decision to cut the overseas aid budget, which I think will be widely welcomed across the country in the real world, even if not always in here.

‘I don’t see why it should be controversial to say that we only spend what we can afford on overseas aid.

‘I suspect that the vast majority of the British public won’t be asking why has he cut so much, they will probably be asking why are we still spending so much?’

Sunak replied: ‘He makes an important point. This Spending Review is about delivering on the British people’s priorities and, yes, we have made some tough choices, but we have done that so we can continue investing in the things that our constituents value most.’

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