While I agree that it is our duty to help those facing disease, war or famine, the sad fact remains that much of the foreign aid budget is spent inappropriately. And we are not talking about trivial amounts of money here, as we spend £30 million a day on foreign aid, and only about 16 per cent of this budget is used as humanitarian aid or crisis relief. Diane Abbot MP says, what has given me great concern recently is the emergence of so called “Lords of Poverty”. These are management consultants who are taking enormous salaries from the DFID (Department for International Development) budget in their role as management consultants.’

The UK target is to spend 0.7 per cent of gross national income on foreign aid, and, at the end of 2013, civil servants went on a £1 billion spending spree in order to hit this target. No person should be rushed to spend taxpayers’ money in order to meet a target. There has been much criticism over the way in which foreign aid money is spent, particularly at a time when we in Wales are facing a crisis in health and social care. As a result of austerity, our public services are struggling. Since 2010, spending across many Government departments has fallen by over a quarter. At a time when we should be investing in our health service in order to meet challenges, we see budgets frozen. In contrast—