Let’s stop wasting £14bn each year in foreign aid says Brady

KARREN Brady has attacked the £14billion-a-year Britain spends on foreign aid as “unjustifiable, illthought-out and poorly executed”.

The Conservative peer criticised the “arbitrary” target to spend 0.7 per cent of national income each year on aid, particularly when Britain pays billions of pounds each year servicing the national debt.

Impact

The Apprentice star and entrepreneur added she could see a role for faith-based organisations during and after conflicts, given that the rule of law may have broken down.

She said: “I do not, though, see a similarly prominent role for the UK Government and its aid budget. This is for two related reasons.

“The first is that it’s impossible to justify the use of taxpayers’ money on such far-flung conflicts where their impact or relevance to the UK is all but impossible to identify. The second is that whenever we take on such broad and ambitious tasks, our track record is poor and we risk doing more harm than good.”

Instead, she said, British aid money should be used to boost defence spending to hit the two per cent Nato target.

She said Britain’s aim must be to “secure the peace” and protect citizens in conflict zones.

She suggested that infrastructure development and supporting a path to democracy in these countries would be done by others.

Lady Brady’s remarks came during an annual Lords debate led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, which this year focused on the role

Brady says aid cash must go on defence of reconciliation in British foreign, defence and international development policy.

She pointed to criticism of Britain’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, saying: “Suffice to say that when we’re paying £50billion each year in interest servicing our national debt, also spending £14billion a year on ill-thought-out and poorly executed aid policy in the name of an arbitrary spending target is something I find unjustifiable.”

She said the UK should seek to “secure the peace” in conflict zones.

She added that this was better done through defence work than international development.

“It is our Armed Forces we should look at, not the aid budget,” she said.