David Cameron has received the significant support of Sir John Major, his predecessor as Conservative prime minister, in his battle to spend billions of pounds more on international aid.

Sir John uses an article in The Sunday Telegraph to describe Mr. Cameron’s bid to enshrine in law that Britain must spend 0.7 percent of its annual income on development from 2013 as “bold, necessary and right.”
His intervention, which will be warmly welcomed at 10 Downing Street, comes as Mr. Cameron faces opposition both from Tory backbenchers and from within his own cabinet over the policy, which is also supported by the Liberal Democrats.
Since the formation of the coalition a little more than a year ago, interventions by Sir John Major have been rare - but they almost always prove highly significant.
In March, the former prime minister urged David Cameron and other Western leaders to consider military action against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, a course of action which they duly took.
The previous year Sir John became the first heavyweight Conservative figure to suggest publicly that a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats might continue after the next general election, a call which finds echoes among members of Mr. Cameron's inner circle, but is out of step with the wishes of the large majority of the Tory grassroots.
The importance of Sir John's backing for his successor on the thorny subject of international aid, therefore, should not be underestimated. It is a toxic issue for many Conservative MPs and party supporters who cannot understand why, at a time when severe spending cuts are having to be made at home, the Department for International Development (DfID) should have its budget protected, a decision taken by Mr. Cameron in opposition
The Prime Minister's determination to enshrine in law Britain's pledge to spend 0.7 percent of its annual income on aid by 2013 enrages his critics on his own side still further.
They point out that the UK's current level of aid spending - 0.56 percent of GNI or £8.5bn - outstrips any other country in the G8 group of leading nations, and argue that it would be madness to bring in a legally enforceable promise to increase it.
It was exactly this point that Liam Fox, the Defense Secretary, made in his letter to the Prime Minister which enraged Mr. Cameron's inner circle when it was leaked last month.
Senior figures at 10 Downing Street privately accuse Dr. Fox of making a naked appeal to the right of his party and of being “on maneuvers” to position himself as a potential future Tory leader.
Some ministers and MPs believe the Defense Secretary leaked the letter himself, something he strongly denies.
Dr. Fox undoubtedly spoke for many Tories when he said “I cannot support the proposal in its current form” and called for the extra money to be spent on “other activities or programs rather than aid.”
The 2013 pledge, it should be noted, is strongly backed by the Liberal Democrats.
However, for Mr. Cameron, the pledge on aid is vital - both personally and politically.
In strategic terms, the decision to ring fence the Whitehall budgets for development and the health service were absolutely key to the prime minister's mission to “detoxify” his party's brand and change it from the “nasty party” to one which spoke for the mainstream.
Increasing aid is also something he believes in passionately, which became apparent when he launched an outspoken defense of his policy at last month's G8 summit in Deauville.
The prime minister dismissively referred to his fellow leaders as “men in suits,” said there was nothing he could do to guarantee that the “Italians or the Germans or whoever else” keep the promises they made to increase aid, and pointedly referred to the 1985 Live Aid concert which he watched on television as a teenager.
His commitment to doing more to helping the world's poorest is echoed today by Sir John, who argues that, while times are undoubtedly tough at home, “there are even greater hardships being suffered by those who live in the kind of abject poverty few of us can ever imagine.”
As Mr. Cameron knows well, Sir John's basic human decency is respected in his party and beyond. He was also, it should be noted, the last Conservative leader to win an outright majority in a general election. His intervention today is the clearest evidence yet that this is a battle with his own side that the Prime Minister is determined to win. Unlike forests or the NHS, there will be no backing down.
(Source: Daily Telegraph