TIME TO SLASH FOREIGN AID BILL
MP Jacob Rees-Mogg joins 100,000 Daily Express readers in demand for the Government to act NOW!
A POWERFUL message from 100,000 Daily Express readers was delivered to Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday.
We took our crusade to Stop The Foreign Aid Madness to the steps of 10 Downing Street.
Britain sends £13.4billion of taxpayers’ money overseas in aid each year. Our postal coupon petition and a letter explaining exactly why the policy must be immediately reviewed were handed over by campaign supporter and Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.
He said: “Readers of the Daily Express along with people across the country recognise there are higher priorities and taxpayers’ money
must be well spent. I would urge the Government to consider our national need.”
After the petition handover, Mr Rees-Mogg explained live on Sky News how he fully backed it and had “handed it over on behalf of Daily Express readers who are concerned about overseas aid being too high and not well spent”.
Our crusade gained support across the country after ordinary, hardworking Britons were left dismayed that the UK is obliged to spend at least 0.7 per cent of national income abroad each year at a time when services like the NHS and social care are under pressure.
The Whitehall presentation party included Tory MP Philip Davies, James Price from the TaxPayers’ Alliance and Daily Express reader Robert Barnes.
Mr Davies said: “If the Prime Minister were to cut the foreign aid budget and spend money here on the NHS and social care instead her popularity would go through the roof.
“For some reason the Government seems determined to pursue an unpopular policy but I hope it now takes heed of the depth and strength of feeling and what the British public wants, as clearly demonstrated by this Daily Express petition.”
Few of our readers doubt Britain’s moral responsibility to help lift countries less fortunate than ours out of poverty but they have told us that continuing to set a legally binding aid spending target when the NHS is in need of further help is wrong.
If a fraction of the money we send abroad was diverted to the frontline it would help ease pressure at a time of increased demand. Analysis shows that if just a 10th of Britain’s annual spend went to the NHS, it would fund three million stays in a hospital bed or 11 million visits to A&E.
Mr Barnes, 52, of Oldham, said: “The excellent campaign by the Daily Express has highlighted the folly of the arbitrary target for foreign aid spending. The people have spoken and would like to see the aid target abolished and our money spent at home.”
Mr Price said: “Time and again the Daily Express has highlighted wasteful spending and it is clear taxpayers are not happy seeing their money spent like this.”
Our crusade began in October last year with readers being asked to send in postal coupons. Yesterday our team delivered the bulging post bags with 100,000 coupons and walked to Downing Street to present the Prime Minister with a letter calling for action.
Last night International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt responded to our petition, saying: “When concerns are raised I listen. Ensuring UK aid money is ‘spent well’ is not enough. We must show that it ‘could not be spent better’.”
She confirmed the Government’s continued commitments on aid but vowed: “The message this petition sends is not lost on the Government.”