oris Johnson is facing a fresh Conservative revolt over Britain's spending abroad, as MPs warn that up to 20 British Council outposts face closure due to a funding shortfall.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, some 100 MPs, including around 20 Tories, claim that the closures
The intervention comes after a behind-the-scenes effort by senior Conservatives to persuade the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to fund a £10 million funding gap faced by the British Council as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The body, which has been given hundreds of million pounds in taxpayer loans and grants, carries out cultural relations work across the world, including by running exhibitions and training programmes and funding scholarships for students from developing countries to study in the UK.
The letter, organised by John Baron, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on the British Council, and Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, warns: "The British Council will be required to hollow out some of its programmes and close its in-country activity in at least five countries and perhaps as many as 20."
