Nigel Farage makes surprising call to treble British aid to Nepal
He said he had 'no objections' to increasing disaster relief to upwards of £60million
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Your support makes all the difference.Nigel Farage, who intends – if Ukip were ever to miraculously get into power – to tackle the deficit by significantly slashing overseas aid, has made a plea with regards to Nepal.
The party leader is backing doubling or trebling British aid to the country, which was left devastated by an 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week.
He said he had “no objections” to increasing disaster relief to upwards of £60million – far more than the coalition’s current response of £22.8million.
“I have no objections to helping with disaster relief but I have a problem with foreign aid that frankly isn't working, is going to the wrong places, and does not command public support.”
Back in December, Farage told LBC: “Of the £11 billion a year that we spend on foreign aid, only £2 billion of it is spent on genuine humanitarian [things], you know, inoculation or clean water.
“So I’d cut £9 billion from that because frankly it’s just being used as an arm of foreign policy.”
In March, the party pledged to spend £3 billion more than the Tories on defence and paying for it by quitting the EU, axing foreign aid and HS2 and slashing Scotland’s budget. This was despite Farage insisting that Britain should stop its “endless foreign wars”.
Patrick O’Flynn, Ukip’s economics spokesman, said the pledge would allow Britain to “properly fund our defence and still have a skeptical position about getting dragged into foreign wars”.
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