READERS JOIN OUR FIGHT TO SLASH AID BUDGET
MORE than 20,000 readers have flooded the Daily Express headquarters with letters backing the paper’s crusade to scrap foreign aid.
A further 10,000 people have signed an online petition backing our call on the Government to stop sending billions of pounds out of the country.
Coupons are now arriving at a rate of around 8,000 per day at our central London offices.
Readers want the nation’s hardearned cash ploughed into their creaking NHS rather than syphoned off abroad to prop up countries often ruled by corrupt regimes.
One frustrated reader David Smith from Fleetwood in Lancashire wrote: “I really do think that these so-called do-gooders and politicians haven’t got a clue as to what is really going on in this country.”
Lis Blythe from West Molesey, Surrey, said: “I hope the Prime Minister will take note of how people feel about this.
“I have worked in palliative care for over 45 years and had to retire due to a cancer diagnosis.
“The way the elderly are treated nowadays is disgraceful.”
The calls for action came as readers continued to respond to our Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade demanding the Government reallocates some of the £13.3billion of taxpayers’ money sent overseas to easing problems at home.
The crusade wants to see our underfunded health service, creaking social care system and elderly services prioritised.
Overseas aid was a central plank of David Cameron’s time in Downing Street.
When he took office in 2010, Britain’s contribution as a percentage of the overall global burden was as high as 10 per cent.
The policy has not been altered by Theresa May and it is now a legal requirement to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on overseas development assistance.
The donation is the second largest in the world in terms of volume behind the US, which contributes the equivalent of about £25billion, or 0.18 per cent of the country’s income. In 2015 the top five recipients of UK aid were Pakistan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Syria.
But millions of pounds are still being given to major economic powerhouses like China and India.
John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The UK is still borrowing tens of billions every year and yet we send billions abroad with little accountability.
“We hear all the time that the NHS needs more money and that there are no savings left to make, but we still see widespread abuse of the system through health tourists not paying for their care.
“Instead, the Government should scrap the 0.7 per cent spending target and be more open about where our money is going.”
The strength of feeling expressed will intensify pressure on the Government to scrap a commitment that sees 0.7 per cent of our national income sent abroad.
The Department for International Development has stressed it is committed to “spending every single penny of its aid budget wisely and without waste”.
A DfID spokesman said: “It’s completely misleading and wrong to suggest this money could be spent on the NHS. The UK has legally committed to spending 0.7 per cent of its gross national income on foreign aid, money which goes towards tackling poverty and saving lives abroad. This money cannot be used in the UK.
“DfID is responsible for 74 per cent of the UK’s foreign aid budget. International Development Secretary Priti Patel has called on the other UK government departments, which spend part of the foreign aid budget, to be accountable to UK taxpayers.”