Yesterday, the Taxpayers Alliance teamed up with former International Development Secretary Priti Patel MP to tell us that that there’s a problem with British aid. We agree – and Patel herself bears more than her fair share of responsibility.
What’s more, if Patel gets her way (and this is clearly part of the coming Tory leadership contest), we will be returning to the ‘bad old days’ when aid was simply a foreign policy tool, devoted to promoting the interests of British big business, the military and the City of London.
The trajectory which aid spending has taken over the last 15 years was already problematic – less about helping governments build quality public services around the world, and more about lining the pockets of businesses and investors here. But under Patel’s leadership, such a sharp turn was taken towards aiding the British elite, that many former aid advocates started wondering whether they should start a campaign to reduce aid spending. Here’s Priti’s top 5 disastrous development decisions:
