Ukip to call for overseas aid spending to be SLASHED by at least £10 billion a year
OVERSEAS aid spending should be slashed by at least £10 billion a year to free up cash for key public services in Britain, Ukip will say today.
Ukip will call for overseas aid spending to be slashed by at least £10 billion a year
It will accuse other parties of denying voters a proper choice on how their money is spent - and leading establishment politicians of being more interested in helping people abroad than at home.
Ukip will campaign to reduce aid spending from 0.7 per cent of national income - the United Nations target David Cameron insisted on hitting - to 0.2 per cent, economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn will say in a speech in London.
That would cut the budget from about £14billion a year to £4billion, with the saving increasing in cash terms as the economy grows.
Mr O'Flynn will accuse Tony Blair and David Cameron - who as Prime Ministers promoted overseas aid as a national priority - of leading "a generation of gap year politicians who were more engaged in the fortunes of places they had visited between school and university than in living standards in working class communities in their own country".
Ukip economic spokesman Patrick O'Flynn
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Mr O'Flynn will add: "The greatest joy for such politicians was being name-checked by rock stars and film stars and told how virtuous they were for being so generous with other people's money.
We cannot afford to contract out our aid policy to the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof
"But we cannot afford to contract out our aid policy to the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof."
The commitment to devote the UN-target sum to overseas aid was enshrined in UK law under Mr Cameron's premiership.
Former PM David Cameron promoted overseas aid as a national priority
Theresa May faces calls to drop the pledge but said last month that the target will remain in place if the Conservatives win the general election on June 8.
However, she also stressed the money must be spent effectively.