Johnson wades into spending row

Patrick Wintour, political editor 

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has distanced himself from David Cameron and George Osborne on public spending cuts saying that the government should not be ringfencing any area from potential cuts, including the overseas aid budget.

The Treasury decision to protect health, aid and schools budgets is putting intense pressure on other departments, in particular plans for a £12bn cut in the welfare budget proposed on Monday by the chancellor for two years after the election.

The proposal has drawn flak from Conservative cabinet ministers as well as from the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, who described it as a "monumental mistake".

The mayor, speaking on LBC's Call Boris, said: "Osborne was right to say more needed to be done to reduce the deficit." But he added that the government should be looking at all areas of public spending.

"I am still slightly perplexed why we contribute aid money to some of these countries that are on the path to prosperity. I sometimes wonder about all the programmes," he said.

Johnson hastily added that the international development secretary, Justine Greening, was doing a great job, but his remarks were immediately picked up on by former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, a strong advocate of shrinking the UK aid budget.

Johnson also retrained his rhetorical fire on the Liberal Democrats, saying: "Clegg is there to perform a very important ceremonial function as David Cameron's lapdog-cum-prophylactic protection device for all the difficult things that David Cameron has to do. He is a kind of lapdog that has been turned into a shield." /Guardian