Minister is ‘methodical on spending’

FOREIGN aid secretary Priti Patel yesterday vowed to ensure maximum value for money for taxpayers as the Daily Express’s demand for radical change was raised in Parliament.

She insisted she was “methodical” in checking how overseas aid was spent and had “not hesitated” to end British funding for programmes that were not worthwhile.

The International Development Secretary, pictured in Downing Street yesterday, also said she was winning backing to reform global rules that stopped the UK using any of its £13billion-a-year aid budget to help British overseas territories wrecked by Hurricane Irma, on grounds they were “too wealthy”.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans highlighted the Daily Express’s campaign against aid waste when Ms Patel gave evidence to the Commons’ International Development Select Committee.

Ms Patel, writing for this newspaper today, right, outlined to MPs what she said was Britain’s world-leading response to the humanitarian crisis of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing into Bangladesh from what she called “unacceptable” persecution in Burma.

She insisted that the spotlight should be equally applied to other government departments when it comes to spending overseas development assistance. Ms Patel said that ministers have to be transparent about how the money is used.