May will use foreign aid cash to rid seas of discarded plastic
THERESA May has promised to divert funds from the UK’s huge £13billion foreign aid budget to help address the growing problem of discarded plastic polluting the oceans.
Speaking at a climate change summit in Paris this week, the Prime Minister said: “We are looking to see what more we can do… to use overseas aid money to ensure that we are doing what I think everybody wants, which is reducing this terrible pollution that is taking place and affecting marine life so devastatingly.”
The promise comes as it emerged that Environment Secretary Michael Gove has now written to International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt to urge that aid is spent on protecting the seas.
Their departments are discussing increasing the small portion of the budget currently spent on protecting marine life from plastic.
Mrs May’s spokesman said: “The Environment Secretary and the International Development Secretary are working together to see what more we can do. The departments have a strong record working on the environment and development.”
The Prime Minister’s pledge, the details of which are yet to be announced, comes as the Government has come under mounting pressure to address the massive foreign aid budget.
The Daily Express’s Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade is demanding ministers reallocate some of the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money sent overseas to instead help ease problems at home.
Britain’s sky-high overseas aid commitment now sees £1 in every £7 spent on aid globally coming courtesy of the British taxpayer. Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows the 28 leading industrialised nations handed out £86billion between them in 2015.
More than £12billion – over 14 per cent – came from the UK, which gave twice as much as France. The crusade wants to see our underfunded health service, creaking social care system and elderly services prioritised before money is sent out of the UK.
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 Prime Minister Theresa May and it is now a legal requirement to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on overseas development assistance.
Encouraging
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 national income.
The Express’s crusade has been backed by tens of thousands of readers, as well as taxpayers’ groups, who are calling on the Government for a complete rethink on how the cash is spent.
Last night they welcomed Mrs May’s pledge. James Price, campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is encouraging that someone is finally starting to realise that the overseas aid money can be better spent elsewhere.
“Until the 0.7 per cent legal target is scrapped, however, accounting trickery will still be needed to move the money elsewhere and that is still not right.
“Taxpayers would also much prefer to see more of their cash being spent on essential services in Britain, or better yet kept in their own pockets.”
PLASTIC pollution affects everybody, every living organism. It affects the oceans, the food chain. It blights our landscapes both visibly and invisibly. So Theresa May’s pledge to apportion some of the UK’s £13billion foreign aid budget to combating the plastic menace around the globe is to be welcomed.
She has clearly listened to the mounting disquiet of voters who cannot understand why we are supporting corrupt regimes and idiotic projects abroad, using money that could be better spent here at home – on the NHS, education, housing and so on. And while for the moment she is powerless to change the legal requirement to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on foreign aid she has at least – by making this pledge – acknowledged that there is a need to be more discriminating in deciding where funds go.
This newspaper’s Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade has gained support from many quarters. It cannot be said often enough that the British people are generous when it comes to sending relief during times of humanitarian crisis or natural disasters. And in terms of promoting goodwill and British interests abroad there is a case to be made for some aid programmes.
Combatting plastic pollution is one such case. The long-term dangers of pollution do not respect national boundaries and plastics in the oceans are bad for us all.