New foreign aid minister Penny Mordaunt stood accused of going native last night after using her first major speech to demand that the public ‘be proud’ of the billions ploughed into projects abroad
New foreign aid minister Penny Mordaunt stood accused of going native last night after using her first major speech to demand that the public ‘be proud’ of the billions ploughed into projects abroad.
The International Development Secretary claimed she ‘wanted a return to the priorities of the people’ – then insisted on maintaining the status quo.
She underlined her commitment to the target of spending 0.7 per cent of national income on foreign aid, currently £14billion a year.
Many critics believe the cash is wasted, but Miss Mordaunt vowed to continue spending large amounts in overseas aid, even claiming her support for the huge budget came directly from her backing for Brexit.
And she told an audience in central London that the aid budget could act as a ‘shield’ against pandemics, organised crime, poverty and terrorism. Miss Mordaunt vowed to ensure that every pound spent on aid would be subject to tougher value for money checks – and said countries which could afford to fund projects themselves would no longer receive British aid money.
But critics pointed out that ministers have previously pledged to stop funding India – which can afford its own space programme – but it was still receiving aid money from Britain.
Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘I am afraid that tinkering round the edges just won’t wash with the British public who want this money spent on vulnerable, elderly, disabled and needy people in this country rather than sloshing about all over the world.’
His colleague Nigel Evans, who sits on the Commons international development committee, said: ‘If there isn’t a proper review of our aid budget and our ability to effectively spend it we will lose public support. The whole area needs a radical overhaul.’
Miss Mordaunt, a prominent Brexiteer, took over as International Development Secretary last November after predecessor Priti Patel was sacked.
The Daily Mail has long highlighted how Britain’s foreign aid budget has ballooned, reporting last week that it soared by £555million to almost £14billion last year – more than doubling over a decade.
Many critics believe the cash is wasted, but Miss Mordaunt vowed to continue spending large amounts in overseas aid, even claiming her support for the huge budget came directly from her backing for Brexit
Yesterday Miss Mordaunt said: ‘We have a moral duty to both the people we seek to help, and those who enable us to do so, to provide the best value for money and the most positive impact for every single pound we spend.
‘To the British public, who I know to be generous and compassionate and who also want us also to return to their priorities, I offer this new approach and I say to them: be proud of what you enable. Be proud of the lives you save, and the future you build. Be proud of your country. Be proud of who we are.’
Miss Mordaunt said she had listened to ‘the critics of aid who say that we are spending too much, or that our spending is wasted, or goes straight into the pockets of the corrupt, that we are neglecting our domestic priorities like the NHS, or that it is not necessary as progress will happen without us’.
Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘I am afraid that tinkering round the edges just won’t wash with the British public who want this money spent on vulnerable, elderly, disabled and needy people in this country rather than sloshing about all over the world’
She continued: ‘I hear you. I get it. I really do. You want a return to the priorities of the people, not the priorities of the politicians. I understand that. That is one reason why I voted for Brexit. We wanted a return to the priorities of the people.
‘We wanted to protect our values, of freedom, equality, independence and democracy. Values that we believe the world is better for. We are a global power, as well as a European one. And in voting for Brexit I wanted my country to project those values on to the world stage. Brexit itself is both an example of our faith in democracy and fundamental freedoms.’
She added: ‘To those who say please put up a shield, I say, we are… It’s a shield called UK Aid.
‘As we leave the EU we must deliver on the promise of Brexit to the world’s poorest, and demonstrate how our new freedoms are mutually beneficial…’
Miss Mordaunt promised a new website to allow the public to see what aid money is spent on in each geographical location.
She also praised the British Press, which had uncovered the scandal of sexual misconduct at the charity Oxfam. ‘Remember, we only learned about that from journalists, operating in a free Press, in our democratic country,’ she said.