BBC ‘spending £24m from licence fee on foreign aid’
qualifies as development assistance. In 2015/16 the BBC World Service was funded entirely by the licence and expansion has seen it launch services in languages including Pidgin and Punjabi.
It also produces extended news bulletins in Russian and broadcasts programmes for audiences in the Korean peninsula.
A BBC spokesman said: “The £24million is not money the BBC has received from the aid budget but existing BBC spend on broadcasting around the world which has been classified as foreign aid.
“The BBC World Service is one of this country’s most valuable exports, bringing Britain to the world and the world to Britain, and the BBC’s international news services not only bring respect for Britain around the world, but also improve its UK news coverage too.”
The chaotic way in which billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is distributed each year has prompted the Daily Express to launch a Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade. It urges Prime Minister Theresa May to abolish the UK’s commitment of spending 0.7 per cent of our national income overseas.
The crusade has been backed by a string of politicians, including Tory grandee Jacob Rees-Mogg and exUkip chief Nigel Farage. NHS campaigner Julie Bailey, Care After Combat’s Jim Davidson and the TaxPayers’ Alliance have also leant their support.
And more than 30,000 Daily Express readers have returned coupons to our London headquarters demanding that Mrs May rethinks the deeply unpopular policy.
Ukip MEP Suzanne Evans said: “The first priority of any government should be to protect and provide for its own people, not squander taxpayers’ money on wasteful overseas projects.”