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With the publication of the annual accounts for the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development office, Britain’s foreign aid spending soon came under scrutiny.
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Buried in the report were some shocking revelations, particularly concerning aid to certain countries. It transpires that Britain’s aid to India is expected to soar by 70 per cent in 2024-25 to a mega £57 million. The findings come just days after India launched its latest rocket on a mission to the moon. As our chief executive, John O’Connell, blasted in the Daily Telegraph: “The foreign aid debacle has been allowed to carry on for far too long.”
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Following up on TalkTV, our policy analyst, Tom Ryan, explained to Kevin O’Sullivan and viewers across the country: “The total amount we’ve spent on aid since 2009 is about double what we spent on the energy price guarantee, about £165 billion. You’ve really got to wonder what that money’s going to.”
As our Global Quangos Uncovered campaign has revealed, more than half of the aid budget has been handed over to international organisations that exercise huge influence on our lives with shockingly little scrutiny!
The TPA has a long track record of campaigning against the arbitrary foreign aid target. And with the help of bulletin readers like you, we put a stop to aid spending being hiked back to 0.7 per cent of gross national income last year. After thousands of you signed our petition, we hand delivered it to Downing Street and stopped what would have been a massive cost to taxpayers.
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Week in week out, our team works tirelessly, standing up for hard pressed Brits. Whether it’s the 70 year high tax burden or demands for increases to aid spending, the TPA will always be on hand to fight for taxpayers. You can support our work by clicking here to donate.
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THRL Roadshow - Kidderminster
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This week our team was out in Kidderminster, home of Wyre Forest district council, for the latest leg of our Town Hall Rich List Roadshow.
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Wyre Forest’s Corporate director: economic prosperity and place topped the rich list for the West Midlands raking in £286,230 in 2021-22. Local residents who played our ‘Play Your Cards Right’ style game were shocked by the mega pay-packets being doled out to senior staff.
On Wednesday, we’ll be visiting Cardiff, where just 17 members of staff cost local taxpayers over £2.4 million!
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Bonuses for bungling bureaucrats
Many of you will recall the near farcical pull-out of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. Whilst mistakes can happen, the foreign office was forced to admit to “deep failures” and “many shortcomings”. We were then astounded to learn that bonuses of up to £10,000 were handed out to senior civil servants.
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John spoke for us all when he took to the Sun blasting: “Taxpayers will be fuming with these bonuses for bungling. Hard pressed households expect frugality from government, not rewards for failure.”
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Licence fee up for review
As we’ve long argued, the licence fee is well past its use by date. So when the government announced that they’d be reviewing the BBC’s funding model, we were straight out the blocks calling for the unfair licence fee to be abolished.
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Explaining the flaws of the TV tax, our digital campaign manager, Joe Ventre, told BBC Radio Three Counties: “It’s fundamentally an antiquated system of funding a public service broadcaster.” You can read our proposals for reforming the BBC and scrapping the licence fee here!
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Botched jobs
While Brits struggle to get a GP appointment, this week the Daily Mail revealed that last year, taxpayers spent a whopping £1.7million on fixing botched cosmetic surgeries carried out abroad.
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Tom was unflinching when standing up for taxpayers when he told the Mail: “Taxpayers will feel uncomfortable with the swelling costs of fixing botched surgeries.”
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The alarming state of government finances
In this week’s blog, our chairman, and former treasury economist Mike Denham, has examined the shocking state of the public finances. Providing high level analysis of the latest government data, Mike explains why we should all be alarmed by the latest debt projections.
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With UK debt already standing at £2.6 trillion and set to triple, Mike makes clear: “We only have one sure way of getting government finances, taxation, and the wider economy back on to a sustainable track, and that is to get a firm grip on public spending.”
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When a council effectively declares bankruptcy, you might think they would try to cut costs and focus on delivering front line services for local residents.
Sadly, it looks like town hall bosses in Thurrock think it’s just a messaging problem. The local authority is currently recruiting a new communications manager who’ll potentially be paid nearly £70,000 to help them “ through a period of unprecedented change.”
Councils should focus on providing services for local ratepayers, not pricey PR positions!
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Benjamin Elks
Operations Manager
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