BRITAIN READY TO CUT FOREIGN AID CASH
Minister gives boost to our crusade
FURY at the £ 13.4billion overseas aid bill has forced the Government to suggest spending may be cut.
Following pressure from Daily Express readers the Government admitted for the first time yesterday that the scale of Britain’s foreign aid budget has sparked “legitimate” concern among voters.
International development secretary Penny Mordaunt
has promised to take action against wealthier countries.
In a tough message, Ms Mordaunt, 44, said: “I want the governments of developing countries to step up and take responsibilty for investing in their own people.
“If they choose not to, that will inform our decisions around our funding.”
Taxpayers are increasingly frustrated that the £ 13.4billion sent overseas every year includes vast sums to countries like Pakistan, India and China at a time when the NHS is struggling with winter pressures.
Anger over the swollen aid budget has grown since the Daily Express highlighted a string of spending scandals – with 90,000 readers backing our Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade by signing coupons and 25,000 more signing an online petition demanding an immediate change in policy.
Task
Ms Mordaunt said: “Nagging doubts persist for many about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and how we go about it.
“It is not that people are ungenerous or uncaring. They care deeply about others around the world. What they question is the weight and resource given to this task by their parliament and their government, especially when there are domestic needs and a national debt to address.
“I understand those legitimate questions.”
Signalling her intention to be more transparent, Ms Mordaunt said it will no longer be acceptable to simply say money has been well spent. Instead the Government will have to prove it “cannot be better spent” on anything else.
Ms Mordaunt’s comments are the fi rst acknowledgment that taxpayers are not getting value for money from a commitment that sees Britain spend 0.7 per cent of its national income on Overseas Development Assistance.
But critics last night called for the legally binding target – introduced by former prime minister David Cameron – to be scrapped altogether.
Tory MP Philip Davies said: “Just changing the spending from some countries to other countries does not address the fact that people want to see a chunk of the money spent in the UK, which is not something the minister can do, or is offering.”
James Price, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “Unfortunately, until we remove the ridiculous 0.7 per cent target, we will still have to shovel the same amount of cash out the door, even if we can’t fi nd good places for it to go. “That is stupid and wrong.” In 2016 Britain handed £ 1.5billion in foreign aid to so- called “middle- income” countries, with Pakistan receiving £ 463million – equal to £ 1.2million a day – despite having space and nuclear weapons programmes; Nigeria £ 230million and Jordan £ 175million.
Taxpayers have also given almost £ 100million to India and £ 46million to China, which wants to become the world’s biggest economy, and a further £ 53million to Brazil.
Meanwhile, Britain is commit- ted to spending £ 225million a year on family planning in the Third World until at least 2022, using money from the aid budget.
Over the coming weeks Ms Mordaunt, who was promoted to aid secretary after Priti Patel was sacked in November, will set out the case for foreign aid, arguing it is necessary for Britain’s security and prosperity.
Last week an independent poll commissioned by this newspaper showed 84 per cent of voters want the Government to divert foreign aid funds to help hospitals cope with the winter crisis.
Abolition
Analysis shows that if less than a tenth of the amount Britain spends on foreign aid each year went to the NHS frontline, it would fund three million stays in a hospital bed or 11 million visits to A& E.
Daily Express reader Robert Barnes, 52, from Oldham, who set up the petition demanding some of the cash is diverted to help frontline services in the UK, said: “Better governance is welcome but… what the public would like to see is the abolition of the 0.7 per cent target and the money spent at home.”
To back our crusade fi ll out the coupon, right, or sign the online petition by visiting petition. parliament. uk/ petitions/ 200292
FOLLOWING this newspaper’s Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade, new International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has pledged to take action and has also said that in future the Government must prove that the money “cannot be better spent” on anything else.
She is also sending a message to the countries which are the recipients of British aid, warning that the sums they receive will be slashed if they do not “take responsibility” and invest the money in their own people’s welfare.
This is good news and a sign that ministers are finally becoming aware of the public’s anger at the spending for spending’s sake which characterises our development aid budget.
What Penny Mordaunt is unable to do is alter the commitment that allocates 0.7 per cent of national income to foreign aid. As Daily Express reader Robert Barnes has said: “What the public would like to see is the abolition of the 0.7 per cent target and the money spent at home.”
While this is, for the moment, outside her remit she will make a case for the aid which saves lives after a natural disaster, which tackles malnutrition and which helps developing countries build up their own health and education infrastructure, enabling them to, as she says, “stand on their own feet”.
Fair enough. But the public is sick of seeing money paid into the hands of chaotic and corrupt regimes. And last week a poll commissioned by the Daily Express found that 84 per cent of voters want foreign aid money to be diverted to help the NHS through its winter crisis. That would be money well spent.