In 2018, Britain’s foreign aid budget increased by £493 million on the previous year, to an astonishing £14.6 billion, according to official figures reported in the Daily Mail. Between China and India, the two nations received a huge £151m of taxpayers’ money – an increase of 12 percent. Foreign aid sent to China rose by £11.7m to £55.6m, in India the number went up by £4.9m to £95m.

China boasts the second largest economy on the planet and is almost four times bigger than the UK economy.

Meanwhile India is one of the world’s most emerging economies.

The figures also revealed Pakistan was the biggest recipient of UK foreign aid in 2018, and received £331million, Ethiopia came second with £301million and Nigeria third with £297million.

China and India have huge financial resources and in recent years have rapidly increased funding for their space programmes.

India is set to launch its first manned space mission by 2022 and has allocated a budget of around four billion dollars for the programme.

Last month China successfully completed a multimillion-pound landing test ahead of its historic unmanned exploration mission to Mars next year.

Former international development secretary, Andrew Mitchell, slammed the findings and said it had brought Government spending into “disrepute”.

Mr Mitchell said: “Spending hard-earned taxpayers’ money in China, a country powering out of poverty and attaining superpower status brings Britain’s brilliant development work into disrepute.

“Care in what is financed should be taken by all departments if reputational damage is to be avoided.”

The UK has a legally-binding commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national output on overseas aid, such expenditure is governed by a strict international Overseas Development Aid definition.

But a “new British standard of aid spending” is said to be under consideration that could see the cash shared more widely across Whitehall departments, including the Ministry of Defence.

One Cabinet source said: “It’s our money and it is up to us how we spend it.”

DON’T MISS

French condemn Macron for awarding London the Légion d’honneur [INSIGHT]
BBC Weather: Carol Kirkwood warns Britons to wrap up warm on NYE [VIDEO]
UK weather forecast: Britain to suffer travel chaos from fog [FORECAST]

The Government has defended the move insisting the money is “crucial” for trade, climate change and human rights

A Government spokesman said: “Our development work with China and India, alongside our world-class defence and diplomacy, is crucial for addressing issues such as trade, climate change and human rights.”

Source: Read Full Article