Andrew Mitchell says funding to lowest-income countries will nearly double but not return to earlier levels

The UK’s bilateral overseas aid budget will start to increase in 2024-25 after taking a “terrible hit” over the previous three years, Andrew Mitchell, the minister for development and Africa, has said.

The overall aid budget, covering multilateral and bilateral aid, is to rise from £7.4bn this financial year to £8.3bn next year, he said. It was £6.9bn in 2022-23.