Foreign aid budget should be spent on problems here

THIS newspaper has always been supportive of the Conservatives’ efforts to restore sanity to the public finances. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis government spending under Labour spiralled out of control as Gordon Brown spent far more than he could ever have hoped to raise in taxes.

It was an absolutely necessity to rein in state spending. This was an enormous task that the Tories approached with commitment and zeal. That makes it all the more baffling that the party continues to waste billions of pounds every year on foreign aid.

This is money that all too often is pilfered by corrupt foreign bureaucrats or wasted on pointless vanity projects that do little to improve life in developing countries. Unbelievably the aid budget is now larger than the Home Office budget and this is an untenable situation.

The proposal by Conservative MP Robert Halfon that this money be used instead to give a pay rise to public sector workers is an interesting one.

In the wake of recent terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire it is certainly possible to sympathise with doctors, nurses, firefighters and police officers who would like a bit more money. Whether or not this is the best use of the cash is open to debate. There are strong arguments in favour of using it to pay down the nation’s debt or to support tax cuts, to give two examples.

But what is for certain is we would be far better off spending the foreign aid budget on ways to alleviate problems at home.