Slash ‘dubious’ foreign aid budget & migrant hotel plan to boost defence spending NOW, blasts Robert Jenrick
A THIRD of Britain’s aid budget should be immediately diverted to defence, a former borders minister demanded today.
Robert Jenrick, 42, urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reassign funding from “dubious” economic development projects abroad to the military.
He also urged the Government to divert funds away from its migrant hotel plan.
On our show Never Mind the Ballots he warned that Britain is in a “pre-war” period and current spending levels won’t keep us safe.
You can watch the show in full on thesun.co.uk and The Sun’s YouTube channel.
In a fiery intervention, he told Never Mind the Ballots:
- WE have failed on migration but Labour will be worse
- THE ECHR is beyond reform and Britain must quit
- DONALD Trump should be the next US President
- TORY rebels must let Rishi Sunak fight the next election but he did not rule out a tilt at the Tory leadership one day
- THAT he wished he had voted for Brexit – but those that did have been betrayed
But Mr Jenrick added a hike in defence cash shouldn’t come at the cost of the taxpayer.
He told host Sun Political Editor Harry Cole: “To govern is to choose and if you’re faced with a difficult choice, I think protecting our national security and investing in defence is more important today than our international aid budget.
“Before the general election the PM should announce an increase in defence spending.
“We’re living in a dangerous world where our adversaries are on the move.
“Whether that’s Russia, China or Iran, we should be putting in place preparations because people will judge us in years to come.”
He added: “At least a third of our international aid budget today is being spent on international development projects around the world – which I think are a dubious utility.
“If you’re faced with choices I would rather the UK fulfilled it’s role in the world by defence rather than international aid.”
When asked if the international aid budget is already going on hotels, Jenrick replied: “If the Prime Minister followed my advice, that wouldn’t be happening.”
The UK currently spends 2 per cent of GDP on defence.
Mr Jenrick insisted this should be instantly bumped to 2.5, with a view to hitting 3 per cent in the medium term.
Last year the UK provided £15.4bn in development assistance abroad.
The African continent was the largest recipient bagging 52 per cent of the cash.
The ex-Immigration Minister warned: “People will look back on the decisions that are made now and in the next parliament.
“That’s why we’ve got to do this.
“But as I said, it’s easy to say you’re going to put more money into defence.
“You’ve got to come up with answers to how you do that. And I’ve put forward a proposal.”