Early evening summary Foreign aid has been slashed by about £4bn a year for the foreseeable future after Boris Johnson narrowly saw off an attempt by Tory rebels to block the cut. Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that Scotland will move on 19 July to a “modified” form of level 0 of her government’s five-tier system of Covid controls, but with continuing restrictions on physical distancing and numbers meeting both indoors and outdoors. The UK has recorded 36,660 new coronavirus cases and 50 new deaths, the government’s dashboard shows. That is the highest number of new cases since late January and the highest number of deaths since early April. Johnson has summoned tech companies to Downing Street to order them to do more to tackle online abuse, amid mounting criticism of the government after black England players were deluged with racist posts in the aftermath of their Euro 2020 defeat. Police are investigating allegations the Scottish National party mishandled hundreds of thousands of pounds raised for independence campaigns yet to take place. That’s all from me for today. But our coronavirus coverage continues on our global live blog. It’s here. It is not a good day for David Cameron. As well as abandoning the 0.7% aid spending target that he championed, later tonight MPs will vote to abandon English Votes for English Laws (Evel), another of his legacies. The 24 Tory MPs who voted against government motion to cut aid budget And here are the 24 Tory rebels who voted against the government motion to cut the aid budget. David Amess (Southend West) Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) Steve Brine (Winchester) Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) Stephen Crabb (Preseli Pembrokeshire) David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) Roger Gale (North Thanet) Damian Green (Ashford) Simon Hoare (North Dorset) Neil Hudson (Penrith and The Border) Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey) Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) Theresa May (Maidenhead) Johnny Mercer (Plymouth, Moor View) Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) Mark Pawsey (Rugby) Bob Seely (Isle of Wight) Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) How MPs voted on cutting aid by party The CommonsVotes app, which is currently the place where Commons division lists appear first, has just posted the full results for the aid cut vote. It shows that 332 Tory MPs voted for the motion, plus Rob Roberts, a former Conservative who now sits as an independent. He is back in the Commons after his six-week suspension for sexual harassment. And 298 MPs voted against. The party breakdown was: Labour: 197 SNP: 45 Conservatives: 24 Lib Dems: 12 DUP: 8 Independent: 4 (Jeremy Corbyn, Jonathan Edwards, Margaret Ferrier and Claudia Webbe) Plaid Cymru: 3 Alba: 2 SDLP: 2 Greens: 1 Alliance: 1 I will post the names of the Tory rebels shortly. David Cameron describes cutting aid budget as "grave mistake" David Cameron, the former Conservative PM, has restated his opposition to cutting the UK’s aid budget, describing it as a “grave mistake”. He has just issued this statement. In theory ministers should not have to worry too much about the electoral consequences of cutting the aid budget (see 4.55pm), because for years opinion polls have shown strong public support for this proposal. Here are some recent figures from YouGov. But these figures do not reflect the salience of the issue. It may well be that cutting the aid budget matters much more to those who are opposed to the idea (the voters the Lib Dems are targeting) than to those who like the sound of it. These are from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh. Sky’s Sam Coates argues today’s vote will make it easier for Rishi Sunak to resist pressure to raise taxes. Coates is referring to this passage in the Treasury written ministerial statement, which MPs today voted to endorse. It said: However, if the house were to negative the motion, rejecting the government’s assessment of the fiscal circumstances, then the government would consequently return to spending 0.7% of GNI on international aid in the next calendar year, and with likely consequences for the fiscal situation, including for taxation and current public spending plans. Ed Davey claims cut to aid budget could alienate millions of Tory voters And Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, has said the cut to the aid budget could alienate millions of Conservative voters. In a statement he said: Boris Johnson has just switched off millions of Conservative voters by callously breaking his promise and abandoning millions of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people in our world. It’s decisions like this that will make millions of voters, especially in the Blue Wall, move away from the Conservatives in droves. This Conservative government has lost touch with the values of our country. There is some evidence that Davey is right. Cutting the aid budget was always a key Ukip policy and the cut to the aid budget has been seen as evidence that under Boris Johnson the Tories are becoming a vehicle for Faragist/Vote Leave national populism, and abandoning the mainstream conservatism of leaders such as John Major and David Cameron. This has been seen as one of the reasons why the Tories lost some seats in their so-called blue wall heartlands in the local elections, and why they suffered a shock defeat in the Chesham and Amersham byelection. (When I made a point earlier about Giles Fraser not representing a key demographic - see 4.22pm - I was not saying the aid cut will not affect how people vote. I was just trying to make a joke about there not being a lot of Tory-voting broadcaster vicars.) Sir Keir Starmer has said the aid cut is damaging Britain’s global reputation. Church of England says it"s concerned cut to aid budget could become permanent The Church of England has also criticised the vote to confirm the cut to the aid budget. In a statement the Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, the church’s lead bishop for lead bishop for international development, said: I am very disappointed that parliament has not seen fit to honour this country’s laudable promise, enshrined in law, to devote 0.7% of GNI to aid. As Andrew Mitchell commented this morning, it is not right that the world’s poorest should be the only ones to suffer from a reduction in spending following the pandemic. The commitment was one of which the Conservative party could be proud and I hope it will be restored very soon. It is a matter of some concern that the criteria which the government has now set out for a return to 0.7% are so stringent that it risks making permanent rather than temporary the reduction in our overseas development. Aid agencies strongly condemn budget cut As you would expect, aid agencies have universally and strongly condemned the spending cut confirmed by MPs this afternoon. Here are some of the comments they have issued. From Pete Moorey, head of advocacy at Christian Aid: This reckless and controversial vote will essentially decimate aid for years to come. It beggars belief that, in the middle of a global pandemic with extreme poverty rising, we are turning our backs on the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. From Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB chief executive: The outcome of today’s vote is a disaster for the world’s poorest people. With more people in need of humanitarian assistance than at any time since World War II, aid is needed more than ever. From Neil Heslop, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation: It is no exaggeration to say that this decision by parliament will devastate international development charities all around the world and the end result is that lives will be lost as a direct consequence. The UK has a proud history as a world leader in international development and to turn our back on that legacy is an historic mistake. From Sarah Brown and Justin van Fleet, chair and president respectively of Theirworld We are deeply disappointed by the outcome of today’s vote. It is shameful that this government is choosing to walk away from the world’s most vulnerable children at a time when they are facing hardship on a scale never seen before. Whatever the government may say through clever spin and rhetoric, the truth is that an indefinite cut to our aid budget - which, let’s be clear, this is - will leave the very poorest weaker in the fight against the threats of poverty, climate change and the current pandemic. From Stephanie Draper, CEO of Bond, a network for UK aid organisations Today, MPs broke their promise to the electorate to address global challenges and turned their backs on those in need. It means that children can no longer go to school, vaccines are left to expire and marginalised communities are left to face hunger, malnutrition and disease. Here is the first lost Tory vote, from Giles Fraser. (Fraser is a left-leaning vicar, broadcaster and member of the intelligentsia, who backed Brexit and the Tories in 2019. He is an interesting chap, but probably not representative of a key electoral demographic.) Here is reaction to the vote from three journalists. From my colleague Patrick Wintour From the Spectator’s James Forsyth From Metro’s Joel Taylor Sunak claims Commons vote makes commitment to 0.7% aid target "more secure for long term" After the division was announced Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, rose to make a point of order. He argued that both those voting for and against the government were voting, in different ways, for the 0.7% aid target. That was the salient point, he said. He claimed that vote had “made that commitment more secure for the long term, whilst helping the government to fix the problems with our public finances”. He also said he and the PM would continue to work with MPs on how the UK could continue to be global leader helping the world’s poorest. MPs vote to approve £4bn aid cut amid claims it could last for years MPs have voted for the government motion to approve the £4bn aid cut by 333 votes to 298 - a majority of 35.