Seven Daily Mail stories that she could not refute

BRITAIN GIVES £5M TO AFRICAN GIRL BAND

UK taxpayers picked up a £5.2million bill to fund a talk show for Ethiopia’s Spice Girls, it was revealed last December. Yegna, a five-strong pop group, was awarded a contract to develop its ‘branded media platform’, which included a radio drama.

CIVIL SERVANTS WHO DOLE OUT AID ARE PAID THE MOST

The foreign aid department hands out the highest salaries in Whitehall, it was reported the same month. Pen-pushers at the Department for International Development earned on average more than £53,000 a year.

QUEUE HERE FOR UK’S £1BN FOREIGN AID CASHPOINT

In January the Mail revealed how more than £1billion of foreign aid was given away in cash over five years. The budget for cash and debit cards recipients can spend at will rose from £53million in 2005 to an annual average of £219million in 2011-15.

YOUR AID MILLIONS TO HELP ELDERLY IN CHINA

As Britain faced a crisis in social care, it was reported in February that foreign aid was being offered to the Chinese to help look after their elderly in the community. That was one project for which our embassy in Beijing invited groups to apply for cash from a £1.3billion fund.

FOREIGN AID MILLIONS FOR SHOPS ABROAD

Also in February it was revealed that Britain has poured more than £100million of foreign aid into shopping malls and retail chains around the world as high street shops at home faced massive rises in business rates. China’s biggest bra retailer and a cinema chain in Nigeria were among those who got cash.

WE GIVE £1 IN EVERY £8 OF DEVELOPED WORLD’S AID

Figures in April showed that Britain provided £1 in every £8 of foreign aid handed out by 29 major countries last year. The £ 13.3billion aid budget outstripped that of every other major nation, except the US and Germany.

UK’S £4M IN FOREIGN AID TO NORTH KOREA

The same month the Mail revealed that more than £4million in aid has been sent to North Korea in the past six years. The UK spent £740,000 on projects in 2015, a 167 per cent increase on the previous year.