Foreign aid tops £14bn

Spending soars by £682m... including UK cash for bustards and salamanders

‘Ensure the national interest is served’

BRITAIN’S foreign aid budget soared to more than £14billion for the first time last year.

Figures released yesterday showed the overseas spending increased by £682million in 2017.

Schemes funded with the record £14.1billion pot included conservation projects to help protect the Chinese giant salamander and the Bengal bustard.

Under controversial targets brought in by David Cameron, Britain is committed to sending 0.7 per cent of our national income overseas every year.

The latest figures mean that £67.7billion has been spent on foreign aid since the goal was first met in 2013 – the equivalent of £2,300 per household.

Pakistan was the biggest recipient with £402million spent there last year, slightly more than £400million funding boost for schools at home announced in the Budget.

The Daily Mail has previously revealed how hundreds of thousands of Pakistani families are receiving cash handouts thanks to UK taxpayers as part of a £420million scheme over eight years.

Whitehall departments sent £90.1millon to India in 2017 and £43.9million to China, where spending included an £860,000 project to encourage people to reduce their salt intake and some £58,555 on drawing up a conservation plan for the Chinese giant salamander.

The figures will renew pressure on ministers to examine how foreign aid is spent at a time when vital services at home such as social care, the NHS and schools are squeezed.

Priti Patel, the former international development secretary, last night demanded a review of how departments such as the Foreign Office spend the money.

Although most of the aid budget is used by the Department for International Development, other ministries are helping to get the money out the door.

Miss Patel said: ‘When we see a marked increase in the international development budget like this, it makes it all the more vitally important that we ensure that the money is delivering in terms of the national interest at home and abroad.

‘It is for all departments which distribute aid, including the Foreign Office, to ensure the national interest is being served.’

While Dfid spending on aid went up by £232million, £450million of the extra money was handed out by the rest of Whitehall or through international partners such as the EU.

The Foreign Office increased its aid spending by £123million, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy by £70million and the Department of Health and Social Care by £55million. Aid cash dished out through the EU fell by £92million to £884million last year. More than £726million was put in a trust fund administered by the IMF.

MPs last night raised concerns about how the aid budget is spent.

Nigel Evans, a Tory member of the international development committee, said: ‘My fear is that we haven’t the capacity to effectively spend it and that we have to counter any temptation to just dispose of it on hare-brained schemes or give it to other international bodies as we approach year end.

‘The Secretary of State for International Development will need a new and rigorous approach to this eye- watering budget.’ Henry Smith, another Tory on the committee, said the 0.7 per cent target should ‘be kept under review’.

‘It is important that there is full scrutiny and probity of the aid budget,’ he added. But Tory MP Pauline Latham, who also sits on the committee, said: ‘By going over £14billion it shows the economy is doing really well, meaning we will be able to help more of the poorest people in the world by providing better healthcare and education as well as working hard to provide more jobs.’

A Government spokesman said: ‘Our aid budget only increases when the UK economy grows, a sign of our economic success, and we are driving value for money to ensure aid cannot be better spent.

‘Our aid commitment increases Britain’s global influence and allows us to shape the world around us, which is firmly in the UK’s national interest.

‘We are spending UK aid where it is most needed, saving lives and helping poorer countries prosper.

‘Poverty reduction is at the heart of what we do but UK aid is also tackling global challenges like disease, terrorism and conflict, and creating a safer, healthier and more prosperous world for us all.’