Andrew Mitchell quizzed on aid to Rwanda: Politics live blog Andrew Mitchell is in the spotlight again today. We have not heard much from him in public since he resigned as chief whip, but this morning he will be giving evidence to the Commons international development committee about the controversial decision he made on his final day as international development secretary to give £16m in aid to Rwanda despite the questionable human rights record of its president, Paul Kagame. Mitchell's decision reversed a decision to suspend aid to the country taken earlier in the year and there are suspicions that it was an act of favouritism. Here's an extract from an article that Mike Hale wrote about it in the New Statesman in September. Just 53 days after the cut was announced, it was reversed. Explaining this decision, Mitchell said that following the delay in British aid: . . . I sought assurances from President Kagame that Rwanda was adhering to the strict partnership principles. President Kagame, a past-master at dealing with Western donors, provided the kind of vacuous assurances he has repeated down the years. Mitchell believed them, announcing as he left for the Chief Whip's office that: "Britain will partially restore its general budget support to Rwanda." The UK remains Rwanda's largest bilateral aid donor. What is so remarkable about the tenacity of British support, is not that it not just that it flies in the face of years of evidence of Rwandan repression at home or Kagame's backing for Congolese rebels. It also ignores the evidence of the danger Rwandan government death squads pose to exiles living in London. I will be covering the hearing in detail. Mitchell's hearing is one of just several items in the diary. 9am: Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, gives a speech on plans to boost the role of reservists in the army. Later there will be a statement in the Commons. 9.30am: Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, gives evidence to the international development secretary about aid to Rwanda. 9.30am: Vince Cable, the business secretary, takes questions in the Commons. 9.45am: Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, holds a press conference to announce plans to train a million people to become "dementia friends" - people able to spot the first signs of dementia. 10am: The trial of Margaret Moran, the Labour MP accused of fiddling her parliamentary expenses, begins in her absence. She will not be there because she has been deemed not fit to plead. 11.15am: David Cameron gives an interview to ITV's This Morning. Around 12.30pm: MPs begin a debate on the House of Commons budget. I'll post a lunchtime summary after PMQs and another in the afternoon.