FORMER Stormont minister Margaret Ritchie has said Boris Johnson’s decision to merge Britain's foreign aid department with the Foreign Office is "spiteful and genuinely shocking".
The Prime Minister announced in June that he was scrapping the Department for International Development (DFID) as part of a "major revamp".
Now a non-aligned member of the House of Lords, Ms Ritchie said: "Providing financial and other assistance to some of the poorest people on the planet won’t solve all the problems they face, but it goes a long way in helping".
"Saving lives, preventing illness and promoting life opportunities for those who cannot help themselves are some of the most noble and generous things politicians can do," she added.
"Only the most selfish and mean-spirited of governments would try and wriggle out of this".
Britain spends close to £13 billion a year on a wide range of foreign aid projects. Announcing changes to the foreign aid budget Mr Johnson said for too long it had been seen as a "cashpoint in the sky", detached from "diplomatic and commercial priorities".
Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick said: "Providing this assistance brings soft power, increases goodwill, promotes sustainability and builds hugely valuable networks across borders, all of which also help improve trade prospects."
Ms Ritchie added: "It seems our Prime Minister, in a shameful re-run of his short-sighted and foolish Brexit exceptionalism, now wants his government to get a better return on its investment.
"Is Boris saying here that we’ll only give you cash help if you use it to buy our tractors, our power plants, our tanks, our military aircraft? Aid for arms? That’s certainly where this is potentially leading us.
"He’s not interested in facilitating education for some of the world’s poorest children, or providing them with life saving vaccinations, or funding vital new roads, schools and water treatment plants. These aid programmes may be worthy, but they don’t generate immediate cash returns, or please shareholders."
Baroness Ritchie added: "We’ve all become used to their shabby, self-centred incompetence grinding the UK’s name and influence into the dust. It’s the one thing - perhaps the only thing - they’re good at.
"I dearly hope that on this issue at least, they will think again. I wouldn’t want the future of some of the world’s most vulnerable people on my conscience,"she added.
