How cosy! Foreign aid role of Lady Waste-a-Lot

MAKING pots of money from helping the world’s poor runs in the family for spendthrift foreign aid mandarin Sir Mark Lowcock and wife Julia.

While Sir Mark — aka Sir Waste- a- Lot — was paid £165,000 a year as permanent secretary for the Department for International Development, I note Lady Lowcock was on the Dfid payroll, too, as a senior economic adviser.

According to the website for a project funded by Dfid, the International Decision Support Initiative, Sir Mark’s wife, Julia Watson, works in Dfid’s Human Development Department, where she advises on ‘strengthening health systems in lowincome countries’.

Sir Waste-a-Lot quit Dfid this week amid criticism of how he squandered taxpayers’ money while racking up a £1.1 million pension pot.

He also spent £285 million on building an airport on the remote island of St Helena, where it is too windy for commercial planes to land.

Dfid is coy about how much Lady Lowcock is paid. ‘We do not comment on personnel matters,’ says a spokesman.