9. 9. UKIP Wales Debate: The Foreign Aid Budget

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:36 pm on 17 May 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 6:36, 17 May 2017

I won’t give way; I have too much to say, I’m sorry. I’m simply delighted to see him. We are then told about how much is wasted or diverted by corruption. Well, if you call 0.01 per cent, as David Melding has just pointed out, being wasted, then your maths bears too much similarity to that of Diane Abbott’s for my comfort, I have to say. But this corruption thing is interesting, isn’t it? What’s this corruption thing? Do UKIP have in mind HSBC paying US regulators nearly $2 billion in fines due to drug money laundering, or the £30 million settlement paid by BAE Systems to the Serious Fraud Office, over the Al-Yamamah jet deal with Saudi Arabia? I don’t think they do.

Let’s see how the proposer of the motion spent his time as a Member of Parliament. He worked for a lobbying company called Strategy Network International, linked to mining firms in apartheid South Africa, which campaigned to lift sanctions and paid for Tory MPs to visit South Africa. It took the cash-for-questions inquiry to reveal he had never declared this consultancy to the House of Commons. As an MP—