Minister defends aid spending after criticism

London Evening Standard/London

Cabinet Minister Justine Greening yesterday hit back at critics of aid spending, accusing some of them of wanting the country to “shut up shop”.

The overseas aid secretary launched a staunch defence of UK aid projects including to Nigeria which has its own space programme and to Somalia where some supplies were recently seized or destroyed by terrorists.

More than £900mn of UK funding is set to be spent on health, education and other projects in Nigeria over five years.

But Tory MPs have attacked the aid given that three Nigerian space satellites have already been launched and the country has ambitions to have a trained astronaut within two years.

Greening stressed no UK public funds were being given for the west African country’s space schemes.

She also stressed that the satellites, including the British-built NigeriaSat-2, were providing meteorological data to help Nigeria’s 162mn population prepare for natural disasters, as well as monitoring crop yields and carrying out soil studies to support agriculture.

She told the Standard: “In a country like Nigeria where the extremes of both drought and flooding are commonplace, weather forecasting is not about what clothes to wear that day or how warm to wrap up. It is the difference between getting a crop harvest and chronic famine.”

The satellites would also aid the battle against piracy, illegal fishing and oil theft, she added.

Pressed on BBC radio over why Britain should fund health and education projects in countries wealthy enough to have their own space programmes, Greening said: “We do expect them to invest in their country as well.”

She believes Nigeria’s satellites are a “sensible investment” by the oil-rich country, which has the second highest national income in Africa but 70% of the population living on less than 64p a day.

Putney MP Greening said the destruction of £480,000 of UK aid supplies in Somalia in a raid by the Al Qaeda linked group Al Shabaab highlighted the instability in the country, and added: “We have a simple choice: either we help foreign governments to deal with terrorists abroad or we do nothing and face a future dealing with them at home or even on foreign battlefields. There are always those who would like Britain to shut up shop and disengage from the world around us. But that is simply not an option.”

Shadow overseas aid secretary Ivan Lewis backed overall UK aid spending as “morally right”. The row comes after senior Ukip politician Godfrey Bloom said Britain should stop sending overseas aid to “bongo bongo land”.