Why is the taxpayer funding our enemies?

LURID tales of corruption, waste and mismanagement in the distribution of our bloated aid budget are now so commonplace they have almost ceased to shock.

Some, like the £5million spent promoting ethiopia’s version of the Spice Girls, border on the absurd. Others, such as the billions siphoned off every year by shadowy middlemen, are positively criminal.

But the new revelation that part of the £12million allocated to set up a civilian police force in Syria may have ended up in the hands of al-Qaeda and other jihadis is truly chilling.

These murderous fanatics are our sworn enemies, and have carried out countless atrocities and terror attacks on Western targets. If, as is claimed, they are receiving funds from the taxpayer, it is grotesque.

It’s also further proof that at nearly £14billion a year (which of course we have to borrow) the aid budget is so vast that the Government simply can’t find enough worthy projects to spend it on. And because it’s fixed at 0.7 per cent of national income, the sum will keep rising indefinitely.

With up to £50billion to find for Brexit, our elderly care system in crisis and the national debt approaching a terrifying £1.8trillion, such profligacy is simply obscene.