UK still sending foreign aid to the richer countries India and China

[pellinore]

The UK is still sending millions in aid to China (world's second largest economy) and India (which has over taken the UK since Brexit to take 5th place in the G7): 

Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell today admitted he was 'rather surprised' that Britain still sent foreign aid cash to China - as it's now more than 12 years since he tried to stop taxpayers' money going to the world's second-largest economy.

Appearing before the House of Commons' International Development Committee, Mr Mitchell conceded it was 'virtually impossible' to defend UK foreign aid being sent to either China or India.

He told MPs that such spending was 'extremely difficult' explain to the 'hard-pressed' British public.

Minister admits he was 'surprised' to find UK sent more than £50m in foreign aid to China last year | Daily Mail Online

UK Slips Behind India to Become World’s Sixth Biggest Economy - Bloomberg

Edited December 12, 2022 by pellinore

[OpenMindedSceptic]

I've met Mitchell on a few occasions. He is very much pro foreign aid so for him to say he cannot defend it is weighty. 

[+and-then]

The simple excuse would be the "influence" such gifts could buy but unless they can be demonstrated to the public, it should be hard to sell the idea from this point forward.

[pellinore]

6 hours ago, and-then said:

The simple excuse would be the "influence" such gifts could buy but unless they can be demonstrated to the public, it should be hard to sell the idea from this point forward.

I believe foreign aid is an example of "soft power", a subtle (or not so subtle) way of getting a foot in the door of developing countries. It makes no sense with China, which is so wealthy compared to us that we have been petitioning them to build our power stations and IT systems; and India, which has overtaken us in the G7 ranking and if we ever get a trade deal with them, we will be in the ridiculous situation of accepting thousands of their citizens in the UK just to do trade, and they will be calling all the shots and we will be giving them aid. It will be like the EU , expect we won't be equal partners and we won't be getting as much out. Sean O'Grady has just written about this in the Independent: the UK is going to carry on doing the same things, because it has to and all trade partners have to, we will just be doing it with countries outside Europe. The UK has the difficult task of finding friends in a post-Brexit world | The Independent

Edited December 13, 2022 by pellinore