Our crusade will fight on to cut foreign aid

AS International Development Secretary, Priti Patel was determined to maintain Britain’s overseas aid commitments while removing waste from the system.

She steadfastly believed the UK is right to spend £13.3billion of its taxpayers’ money on Official Development Assistance – or foreign aid – each year.

But when this newspaper launched its Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade, readers disagreed and backed calls for greater transparency and more money to be spent on projects here in the UK, rather than abroad.

This forced Ms Patel’s beleaguered department into a passionate defence of its position and prompted an aide to say: “Priti would argue there are a huge number of checks in place and DFID is absolutely accountable and transparent to British taxpayers about where [its] money goes.”

However, as our crusade, signed by 70,000 readers so far, has shown, billions of pounds still pours out each year to pay for projects with little merit or reward for the people who ultimately fund them.

Meanwhile, here in the UK, frontline health and social care services are starved of cash.

It later emerged Ms Patel, 45, used a family holiday in Israel as a networking exercise, during which she met a series of leading politicians.

She not only did this, reportedly, without informing Downing Street or the Foreign Office, but also discussed aid issues while there.

It is claimed she considered diverting foreign aid cash to the Israeli army in the disputed Golan Heights, even though Britain accuses Israel of occupying the territory illegally.

Writing in the Daily Express on October 25, Ms Patel said: “UK aid is making a difference around the world: saving lives, wiping