The UK is now housing so many asylum seekers that more than half of the country’s foreign aid budget is spent in Britain.
Data released by the Foreign Office data on Wednesday shows that the UK spent £9.9 billion in bilateral aid in 2023, with 54 per cent of this being used domestically, up from 48 per cent the previous year.
Money that is supposed to be reserved to help poorer countries alleviate poverty and respond to humanitarian disasters is being spent in the UK because the country is brining in so many “refugees,” the vast majority of whom are actually economic migrants.
With the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotel accommodation, some in 4 star hotels in prime tourist locations, running at a whopping £8 million pounds a day, the amount of foreign aid being given to poorer nations has feel by 10 per cent.
Sarah Champion, chairman of the international development committee, said the figures were “deeply worrying,” while Gideon Rabinowitz, director of policy and advocacy at Bond, said the numbers showed that “the Government seems to have lost its grip on UK aid spending.”
Hellbound and Down 