No benefit from less foreign aid

While Derek Stocker’s claim that ‘foreign aid rise is unacceptable’ (letters, Observer 14/4) has some validity; it is because all aid increases should be based on performance poverty audits and good governance.

If the aid budget is reduced there is no guarantee that other services would benefit, as we have seen in the £350 million referendum promise for the health service. Our services could be improved at a stroke by adequate budgetary funding out of general taxation, independent of any overseas aid allocations.

Overseas aid goes to international organisations, famine relief bodies, NGOs, refugee relief, and other humanitarian causes. Ironically it is often suggested that for every £1 of aid given, £2 returns to the UK economy through procurement and international research and education.

Overseas aid actually reduces the flow of economic migrants as home country economies are improved and stabilisation through aid reduces the numbers of asylum seekers.

It is not in the UK’s interest to reduce aid but to ensure that it is transparent, competent and adequately supervised.

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