Ukip’s Paul Nuttall pledges to slash ‘bloated’ Foreign Aid budget to 0.2 per cent of Government spending
UKIP put Britain’s bloated Foreign Aid budget on the ballot paper with a pledge to slash it to 0.2 per cent rather than the current 0.7 per cent of government spending.
In a blistering attack on the current International Development spending, the Brexit party said Britain “cannot afford to contract out our aid policy to the likes of Bono and Bob Geldof.”
Party chief Paul Nuttall and economics spokesman Patrick O’Flynn also unveiled plans to to scrap the compulsory BBC licence fee.
While no longer obliged by law to fork out £147 every year, telly fans would still have to pay up to watch top BBC shows like Line of Duty and Strictly.
Mr O’Flynn said that in the internet age “the licence fee has become to broadcasting what the horse and cart is to transport – obsolete”.
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Aiming their sights at the Department for International Development during a speech in Central London the pair accused rival parties “of seeking to disenfranchise the views of the British public by offering only one choice when it comes to aid funding”.
Ukip say their change will save the taxpayer billions and will urge Theresa May to make it Government policy ahead of her expected victory in June’s snap poll.
Mr O’Flynn added: “Ukip is going to break up that political monopoly and offer a choice to the millions of voters who want to see less spent on aid and more on our key domestic public services.”
Last night the Lib Dems hit back: “Ukip would cheerfully see a child starve to death if it won them some cheap, snarling clip on the evening news.”