"BROKEN promise.”

It should be the anti-slogan for this Tory Government. Two words that sum up Johnson and his Cabinet and the damage they continue to wreak on our lives, our international reputation and responsibilities.

This week, in a joint article in London’s Evening Standard by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, the UK Government’s severe cut to international aid is described as “deeply worrying”, as well as a “broken promise”. They call on Boris Johnson to reverse this callous decision – “balancing the books during a pandemic on the backs of the world’s poorest is not acceptable”. They say it is a question of “morality”.

Unfortunately, they might as well be howling into a void, a moral void at that. The Prime Minister cares not a jot for pretty much anyone other than himself. Given his intransigence or indeed inability to protect the 150,000 and rising UK citizens from Covid, it’s unlikely that the man who seems to have had an empathy bypass will care very much for the lives of those blighted by the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time in Yemen. A conflict that the UK Government perpetuates through its sale of arms to the Saudis or indeed the developing world and those living on the thin edge of the climate crisis caused mostly by Western greed.

Archbishop Welby and Cardinal Nichols have taken the unusual step of wading in to this debate to warn Johnson and Sunak that their government’s decision to drastically cut the aid budget by £4 billion under the legally binding target of 0.7% of national output will do “real damage”. Here again they are whistling in the wind, because Johnson and co have shown that legality and internationally binding commitments are mere roadblocks in the way of their ideological bulldozer – to be blasted through without care or concern on their road to ruin.

READ MORE: Tories accused of breaking law to force through 'deplorable' foreign aid cuts

Because this is a government that is broken to the core, that couldn’t keep a promise if we paid them, which we do, quite large sums for taking us all on their joyless ride. Reducing the aid budget is such an act of international vandalism, that even their own MPs are calling it out. Andrew Mitchell, the former International Development Secretary, has described the UK as “complicit” in the Saudi-led attack on Yemen causing a catastrophic famine, with nearly 2.3 million children projected to suffer as a result according to the UN.

Not so much Global Britain, more Parochial Embarrassment. The UK stands alone as the only G7 country to commit this act of international shame. It will make for some very uncomfortable meetings when Johnson hosts the G7 summit in the UK this summer – he will have a lot of explaining to do, both on this cut to aid and his inability to take the climate crisis with the seriousness and practical action plan that is required ahead of Cop26 in Glasgow. “Trust” will be like Banquo’s ghost at this gathering of the global great and good. Although, unlike Macbeth, who at least had some vestige of conscience left, there is no part of Johnson that integrity can reach or rescue.

We are all the poorer for it. Old Blighty isolated from Europe and from its responsibilities as a global player, failing its “first test of what post-Brexit Global Britain means in practice” to quote Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee.

In addition, Tory Caroline Noakes, the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, cut straight to the point, saying the PM’s cuts to humanitarian aid were, to quote the UN again, a “death sentence”, leaving “the most vulnerable around the globe at the mercy of rapists in war zones and predators in refugee camps”.

Remember this is a government that doesn’t even want to feed their own children living in poverty. It took pressure from footballer and all-round 21st-century hero, Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford, to get Johnson to switch on providing free schools meals during the Christmas holidays. You could see it really caught in his craw to do this – now Johnson is showing those few xenophobic narcissists how much he wants to keep their votes by taking the food out of children’s mouths in a country far away – out of sight, out of mind and all the more for us. Britain First and last.

When questioned on his decision to cut overseas aid, Johnson answered, “given the difficulties that this country faces, I think the people of this country will think we’ve got our priorities right”, without the slightest hint of irony or humanity.

Promises broken, responsibilities ignored, reputation ruined. Put that three-pronged slogan on your podium Mr Johnson. At this rate it will be a fitting epitaph for a less-than-Great Britain.