Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Covid-19 can finally slash Britain’s bloated overseas aid: The money should go to saving lives, not juggling lessons in Tanzania

Covid-19 can finally slash Britain’s bloated overseas aid: The money should go to saving lives, not juggling lessons in Tanzania

The MPs who are about to start investigating the effectiveness of the UK’s £14 billion annual aid have the perfect reason to cut it; thanks to coronavirus, Britons are thinking of what’s best for them.
As MPs on the newly-created House of Commons select committee on International Development roll up their sleeves before getting stuck in the nitty-gritty tomorrow, they have one thing on their side that might make efforts to slash the UK’s aid budget more successful than in the past – the Covid-19 pandemic.

Because every time a newly-appointed minister has previously announced his or her intention to take stock of how the legally ring-fenced 0.7 percent of GDP is spent on overseas funding, there is a hardening of resistance from those that stand to benefit.

And there have been many ambitious, starry-eyed politicians to take on this role. From current incumbent Anne Travelyan, we have had eight secretaries of state for this department in the last 10 years, including Priti Patel, Rory Stewart, Andrew Mitchell, and Hilary Benn.

But despite the burning ambition of each of these politicians, none managed to get to grips with ensuring that the billions earmarked for international aid actually went to those who needed it most.

Instead, we have had years of sending aid to China – the globe’s second largest economy – and India. Nations which both spend billions on sending rockets into space. Other prime beneficiaries of Britain’s generosity have included Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria.

We have wasted shedloads of taxpayer money on juggling lessons in Tanzania, teaching yoga in India, school dinner studies in China, and support for the National Symphony Orchestra of Iraq.

It’s not just these bilateral efforts – country to country – that need closer scrutiny, it’s also the donations we make to multilateral outfits like the United Nations and European Union that we need to row back on.

In the past, Britain’s aid to the EU has been used on such bonkers projects as promoting tourism in Iceland, bankrolling a French tourist resort in Morocco, supporting a hospitality management school in Barbados, and subsidising a Turkish TV station.

One study on how the money sent to developing countries was spent found that money in tax havens Switzerland and Luxembourg held by these countries actually increased when aid was distributed. Hmm, why on earth would that be?

Needless to say, making a few corrupt officials mega-rich is not the aim of international aid.

Still, to many people, talk of cutting the aid budget is unwelcome, to say the least. Charities of all hues are suddenly up in arms and cite poverty, disease, under-development, and historical reasons why British taxpayers should continue to send billions of pounds abroad in return for nothing concrete.

Former PM David Cameron didn’t help things when he said a healthy overseas aid budget was a “moral obligation.”

The difference this time, as Anne Travelyan is no doubt aware, is that the public mood has shifted drastically, thanks to the coronavirus. We are inundated with maps, charts, and tables of figures in newspapers and on TV showing country-by-country analysis of the spread of the virus, detailing varying, sometimes conflicting, approaches to dealing with the problem.

We can monitor the pandemic table as if it was a football league: so many tested, so many infected, so many dead. We can watch as businesses line up to teeter on the edge of bankruptcy. And the effect is that it makes us pull for our team, our nation, over others.

We are starting to feel our place in the world like no other time, except during war. It makes being an island off mainland Europe a huge plus.

Let’s be honest. What I’m saying is that we are suddenly more selfish. There. I’ve said it. And it is no bad thing.

When people are fighting over loo rolls in the aisles at Tesco, suggesting we slash a few hundred million off the bill for EU aid, for instance, is unlikely to meet much resistance, particularly when it’s unclear where that money will actually end up – someone’s Swiss bank account or building a water supply in a dusty Ethiopian village.

When the coronavirus finally completes its grim task and we all get back to what we were doing before its arrival, and the International Development select committee has completed its inquiry into the spending, administration, and policies of the Department for International Development and the effectiveness of UK aid, then one thing is certain.

If this government is serious about putting the wellbeing of all Britons first, then the international development budget will be nowhere near as large as what it is now.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×