Responding to Theresa May's announcement that the UK will continue to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid John O'Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, says:
"The 0.7% foreign aid target is totally arbitrary and meaningless and it is disappointing that the Prime Minister has refused to see sense and scrap the ring fencing of the budget. The worst possible way to deliver value when spending taxpayers’ cash is to define the success of a policy by how much you spend rather than what the money actually achieves.
"What's more, not only does the bloated foreign aid budget have a poor record at promoting freedom in developing countries, even the Government’s calculations fail to take into account the considerable amount that the British public give privately to help the most vulnerable people around the world. If we are ever going to balance the books, it is crucial that the government ends ring fencing across all departments to ensure that every single area of spending delivers the best value for taxpayers."