David Davies lays into the Department for International Development

International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander introduced a debate in the House of Commons yesterday about the importance of transparency in international aid.

Monmouth MP David Davies caused quite a stir with his intervention. It certainly upset Ivan Lewis, a DFID minister. Malcolm Bruce, a Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the International Development Committee, dismissed what follows as a "pub rant".

Sometimes as an editor you really don't know what to cut out. It's normally possible just to pick out a few key points. Mr Davies's offering was not short of those (his principal point was that DFID has too many offices worldwide and spends too much on them), but highlighting these arguments alone would not do full justice to the tidal waves of rhetoric that poured forth. ConservativeHome readers deserve to see the speech and his exchanges with the minister in their full glory.

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