‘Use foreign aid cash to boost security and trade with the Commonwealth’
BRITAIN should train the armed forces of poor Commonwealth countries to help create new security and trade alliances after Brexit.
Commander Martin Pike, a former senior adviser to the Defence Secretary, has recommended funnelling foreign aid through the Commonwealth Secretariat to reinvigorate relations with former colonies.
His plan, in a policy paper for Brexit campaign group Veterans for Britain, comes as the Daily Express spearheads a crusade to stop foreign aid madness.
It costs the taxpayer billions each year and funds are largely spent in corrupt countries. Commander Pike proposes increasing the number of bilateral agreements on defence and security, although he insists that he is not proposing “recreating the empire”.
He said: “The eventual aim might be to increase the cohesion of the Commonwealth as a whole, in order to eventually form a loose security architecture capable of wielding soft and/or hard power on the international stage in support of peace and stability.”
He proposes that the foreign aid budget is used towards these objectives by being included, if it is not already, in the UK’s national security conversations and planning.
Cmdr Pike stressed the need for a “long-term strategic policy, aims and goals”.
Foreign aid should be funnelled to the Commonwealth Secretariat so it can be greatly expanded to start setting up new agreements with former colonies where relations have been allowed to wither because of the EU.
He noted that the foreign aid budget “has attracted considerable criticism within the UK” given its size which is governed by law rather than requirement.
“What is required is a longterm coordinated strategy in support of UK aims and objectives,” he said.
“The Government must not be afraid to use the funds in support of democracy and must be robust in repudiating the inevitable criticism from those with a different agenda and a suspicion bordering on paranoia of things military.” He also suggests that the cash could be used to help build trade agreements and create a combined Commonwealth market.
“The combined GDP of Commonwealth nations is some 14 per cent of world GDP. This could be a powerful trading block if its cohesion were enhanced.”
THE Daily Express crusade to Stop The Foreign Aid Madness continues to grow with an incredible 67,000 readers lending their support in less than a fortnight.
Letters and coupons demanding Prime Minister Theresa May urgently acts to change the way taxpayers’ money is frittered away overseas have been flooding in every day since the Daily Express started its crusade.
The strength of feeling over how services in the UK teeter on the brink of collapse while billions of pounds is funnelled abroad with little accountability has prompted this newspaper to demand immediate action.
Around 5,000 coupons have arrived at our London offices each day for the past fortnight after we highlighted the way your money is doled out around the globe.
Some 50,000 readers filled in and posted the newspaper coupons while 17,000 signed online at the Express website.
Britain now has a legal requirement to spend at least 0.7 per cent of its national income – £13.3billion last year – on Official Development Assistance or foreign aid.
The target was set by former prime minister David Cameron in 2013 and has been met to the penny every year since.
The eye-watering commitment comes as the NHS faces its worst crisis on record while councils across the country continue to slash vital social care services because they do not have the money to fund them.
Ukip MEP Margot Parker, the party’s international development spokesperson, said: “It is clear what is important to the Government and the Department for International Development is not the relief and support of parts of the world less fortunate than ourselves, but hitting the arbitrary targets set by David Cameron so he could polish his halo among the chattering classes, both at home and internationally.
“The almost panic spend on projects in order to achieve the target shows how taxpayers’ money is not spent on need, but on our politicians’ vanity.”
Spending by DfID, the department run by International Development Secretary Priti Patel, accounts for 74 per cent of the total with other government departments shouldering the remaining £3.5billion liability.
A National Audit Office report published earlier this year sheds light on how Whitehall races to spend every last penny simply to meet the arbitrary 0.7 per cent target each year. Documents reveal that in November last year DfID’s contribution to foreign aid was “overfunded” by £93million.
Yet a month later the department held back £42million of payments just to hit the target.
Dfid last night shrugged off criticism from the NAO, insisting payment to the fund was made on time in January.
DfID said: “The UK has legally committed to spending 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid, money which goes towards tackling poverty and saving lives around the world.
“The test of whether spending is good or not, is not when it is spent, but its quality.
“We work closely with other departments to meet the target and maintain the highest standards across government.”
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