Boris Johnson decided to scrap aid department without asking his Cabinet

Boris Johnson decided to scrap the foreign aid department without consulting his Cabinet, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has admitted.

The confession is likely to prompt fresh fury over the PM's surprise announcement that the Department for International Development will be merged into the Foreign Office.

Ex-PM David Cameron led warnings it would diminish Britain's place in the world - as MPs warned aid would be deprioritised in government.

While Mr Johnson insisted 0.7% of GDP would still be spent on aid, he also slammed DFID spending as a "giant cashpoint in the sky".

Today Mr Hancock was asked if the PM consulted his top team of elected representatives in the Cabinet before making the decision.

"No, it wasn't, it's absolutely right it's a prime ministerial decision," he told Sky News.

"All these machinery of Government changes are decisions individually made by the Prime Minister."

The move to merge it with the Foreign Office has come under widespread criticism from aid charities, opposition MPs and three former prime ministers, including Mr Cameron.

Critics raised concerns that the plan to create a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will harm the world's poorest people.

The Prime Minister said it would be a "huge benefit" to overseas aid.

But Mr Cameron said the merger was a "mistake" and that the reforms would result in the UK commanding "less respect" on the global stage.

Tony Blair, the Labour former PM whose administration created the department in 1997, said he was "utterly dismayed" by Mr Johnson's decision.

But Mr Johnson told MPs that the separation created between diplomacy and overseas development by the department was "artificial and outdated".

David Cameron launched an unprecedented attack on his successor (PA)

Instead, he argued, the "super-department" would be of "huge benefit" to Britain's overseas aid mission.

No 10 has said it will be formally established in early September, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in charge of the operation.

The PM assured MPs that the target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on aid will remain in place.

But Oxfam Great Britain chief executive Danny Sriskandarajah said: "This decision puts politics above the needs of the poorest people and will mean more people around the world will die unnecessarily from hunger and disease."