Tory party conference: Conservatives would cancel British aid to China

from the Telegraph

By Andrew Pierce

Britain's international aid budget to 115 countries, which costs more than £6 billion a year, will also be reviewed by a David Cameron administration.

But it is the aid budget to China, which this year spent £20 billion on the Beijing Olympics, which will be eliminated first. The money will be redirected to genuinely poorer countries in Africa.

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, will make the pledge in his speech at the party conference today.

"We have just marvelled at the spectacle of the Beijing Olympics and gloried in the success of our brilliant young sport stars. Those games did not come cheap – the price tag was a record £20 billion. Not a great surprise perhaps for a country that is powering out of poverty, had a trade surplus last year of £175 billion, and put a man in space last week.

"Many British taxpayers would be astonished to learn that we are still giving aid to China – and that last year, under Labour, China received in aid for the British taxpayer £38.6 million.

"Out aid budget is the fruit of hard work of the British people. It must be spent wisely. And that means it must be targeted on the countries and peoples who need it most. No money for China, more money for the very poorest people in the world."

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