MAY ‘ HUNGRY FOR AID CASH’

THERESA May is plotting to divert cash earmarked for starving children to help fund British military operations.

Sources claim the PM wants to spend some of the £13billion of overseas aid on the 800 UK troops being sent to bolster Nato defences in Estonia.

Strict rules set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development govern where aid money can be spent and why.

More than 40 per cent of UK aid goes to bodies such as the UN, for disaster relief. The rest is spent in developing countries – in particular in Africa, which accounted for £2.54billion last year.

But the Tory manifesto said: “We will work to change the rules. If that does not work we will change the law.”

Aggression

Mrs May wants the money to help pay for our forces in Estonia – who are there to deter Russian aggression, along with troops stationed in Poland. It is the biggest UK military deployment in Europe since the Cold War.

Shadow International Development Secretary Kate Osamor said: “This is not appropriate for aid spending. It’s just propping up a military operation.

“It’s right to work closely with defence and the Foreign Office. But spending must be kept separate.”

The OECD allows aid money to be spent on conflict prevention abroad and on troops to protect aid workers. It cannot be spent in Eastern Europe other than Ukraine and Albania.

Britain has pledged to spend 0.7 per cent of our wealth on overseas aid – last year inoculating 67 million children against disease, and helping feed 30 million pregnant mums and under-fives.

Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband, of the International Rescue Committee, said: “It’s vital aid serves the best interests of people in need.”