Foreign aid slammed as ‘Robin Hood in reverse’ as funds flow to areas richer than parts of UK

FOREIGN aid cash has been branded “Robin Hood in reverse” as it is being spent in areas richer than parts of the UK, a study has found.

Wealthy regions of China, Malaysia and Mexico have benefited from taxpayers’ money to fund their own projects over the past five years.

Those include an all-female opera in Shanghai, an AI anti-congestion measure located in Kuala Lumpur, as well as a temporary cycle lane that was set up in Mexico City.

The report, by the Institute for Economic Affairs, said that one of the areas in China to get funds — Ordos — has a GDP the same level as Swansea and was richer than 69 UK regions.

Report author Mark Tovey said: “Taxing hard-working people in left-behind Britain to fund projects in affluent regions abroad is a policy of Robin Hood in reverse.

He added: “We urgently need to reevaluate our aid priorities to ensure that UK taxpayers’ money supports the world’s poorest, focusing on stamping out infectious diseases, ending hunger, and genuinely lifting those in desperate need out of poverty.”

The study calls for a law change ensuring taxpayer money not being sent to areas that are relatively well-off to prevent aid being sent to regions richer than communities in the UK funding it.

Tory MP Mark Francois slammed the funding use.

He said last night: “How can it possibly be that we are apparently spending British taxpayers money, to subsidise opera in China, the second largest economy in the world?

“We should surely be done with stuff like that – before it brings the whole international aid budget into disrepute.”