Foreign aid BOMBSHELL: UK’s annual budget ‘to soar by EXTRA £1 BILLION in next four years’ : Express

BRITAIN’S bloated annual foreign aid budget is set to soar by an extra £1billion over the next four years, financial experts said last night.

The forecast from the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that nearly £15billion of UK taxpayers’ money will be given away overseas every year by 2021.

Based on projections for the country’s economic growth, the massive figure is set to trigger fresh fury at the shielding of the aid budget from spending cuts.

And it comes just days after Theresa May confirmed that the Tory pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of Britain’s national income on overseas assistance is to be included in the party’s general election manifesto.

Yet the report also pointed out that Britain is among only eight nations around the world that reached the internationally-agreed target last year.

Out of 15 EU countries signed up to the pledge made at the 2005 G7 Summit at Gleneagles, only the UK and Germany have consistently hit the aid target every year.

Eight of the EU countries signed up to the United Nations-backed pledged had actually reduced their spending on aid as a proportion of national income since 2005, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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