Boris Johnson: Aid spending will promote British interests
1 min read
Aid spending will focus on projects that promote UK interests in a shakeup of the system, Boris Johnson has revealed.
The Foreign Secretary said “the old jam jars are being smashed” and cash would be better spent rooting terrorist militants out of safe havens.
His comments follow controversies over aid spending - including a project that was scrapped when it emerged cash was falling into the hands of jihadis.
The Government has also been accused of wasting money on social projects such as an Ethiopian girl band that was set up to promote women’s rights.
Mr Johnson told the Sunday Times foreign aid would be “more sensibly distributed” to promote UK goals such as combating terror groups in Africa.
“You are going to see a lot of progress there on [official development assistance] funding, supporting diplomatic activity in Africa, which is entirely sensible,” he added.
And he said money from the £13bn annual aid budget would also go towards refugees in Yemen and Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the Burmese border into Bangladesh.
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