British taxpayers paid £126m more than expected on foreign aid last year — passing £14bn mark for the first time

BRITAIN’S bloated foreign aid budget rose by £126 million more than expected last year, new figures revealed yesterday.

It takes our annual foreign aid splurge past the £14 billion mark for the first time.

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The revision, which was slipped out in government documents yesterday, was due to higher than expected national income of 5.1 per cent.

David Cameron changed the law to pledge 0.7 per cent of our national income on overseas aid.

It meant our foreign aid budget rose from £13.4 billion to £14.06 billion in 2017.

The top recipients for the taxpayer-funded handouts were £400 million for Pakistan and £327 million to Nigeria but also included G20 countries such as Turkey.

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Meanwhile India, which has its own space programme, got £44 million.

And China - the second biggest economy in the world - was given £90 million taxpayer-funded handouts.

Yesterday's figures were revised figures from April, when the Government stated £13.9 billion had been spent on foreign aid.

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