In her address to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Priti Patel announced every pound of British aid spent abroad would be scrutinised to guard against waste and corruption. She promised to “follow the money” citing Margret Thatcher’s remark there is “no such thing as public money.”
The International Development secretary wanted the conference that any schemes deemed not delivering would be scrapped and those the UK already invests in should be “mutually beneficial”. As Ms Patel seeks to justify the amount the UK on aid, she said the if the country spent less on the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the migrant crisis across Europe would be much worse.
She said: “As Margret Thatcher famously said: there’s no such thins as public money - it is taxpayers money. And when we open budgets and let people see where the money is going, we can help root out corruption and ensure that resources reach the most vulnerable.”
Ms Patel who campaigned to leave the EU said that the news direction will send “a clear message to the international aid community. If we can demand more from one of the best performing institutions… we are certainly going to demand much, much more from everyone else, too.”
In her speech, she made the case to continue spending 0.7% of the GDP on international aid. She warned that unless the UK was committed to solving problems abroad, citizens would suffer at home.
“If we stand back and abandon countries that suffer from poverty and weak institutions, then not only do the people who live in those countries suffer, and not only do those countries become vulnerable to insecurity and terrorism, but the problems that they have, come closer to home,” she said.
Ms Patel pledged to spend £750 million on supporting Afghanistan over a three year period to keep the UK safe and “do justice to the sacrifices made by our brave Armed Forces.”
