A new report found UK is spending foreign aid in regions that are richer than parts of the UK. (Image: Getty)
A bombshell new report has suggested Britain is shelling out foreign aid to regions with a higher GDP than parts of the UK, including Shanghai and Shenzhen in China.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) allocates overseas aid via its Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme, also known as the foreign aid budget.
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According to the FCDO website, it aligns the government’s global efforts to defeat poverty, tackle instability, and create prosperity in developing countries.
But a study published by the Institute for Economic Affairs on Wednesday, entitled 'Robin Hood in Reverse', reveals the richest recipient, Ordos in China, has a GDP per capita of ￡27,500 – on a par with Swansea and richer than 69 other regions of the UK.
According to the report, authored by IEA Research Fellow Mark Tovey, projects include an opera in Shanghai, a rural crafts exhibition in Shenzhen, and AI-driven anti-congestion measures for Kuala Lumpur.
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Eight regions receiving aid from the UK had higher GDP per capita than the UK's poorest region - Ards and North Down (￡17,635 GDP per capita). Beijing and Guangzhou in China, and Campeche in Mexico, were among the other areas also benefitting.
The paper has urged for an amendment to be added to the International Development Act 2002 requiring overseas development aid to target regions with a GDP per capita equal to or below the OECD Development Assistance Committee's cut-off for aid eligibility.
Mr Tovey, a freelance journalist, said: "Taxing hard-working people in left-behind Britain to fund projects in affluent regions abroad is a policy of Robin Hood in reverse, with aid money going to prosperous areas like Ordos in China or Campeche in Mexico - both of which are actually richer than large parts of the UK.
"We urgently need to reevaluate our aid priorities to ensure that UK taxpayers' money supports the world's poorest, focusing on stamping out infectious diseases, ending hunger, and genuinely lifting those in desperate need out of poverty."
In 2010, the UK's Department for International Development announced it would move away from a "traditional" aid relationship to a "partnership" arrangement with some middle-income economies, including China, according to a research briefing on the UK parliament website.
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Direct government-to-government aid was to be phased out, with a greater emphasis on identifying shared interests (such as climate change), the authors said.
The UK Government argued China, which is currently the second largest economy in the world behind the US, no longer required aid assistance due to its economic growth and ability to bankroll its own development.
The year before, the Commons International Development Committee also judged that funding could be scaled down, but said continuing some aid would help to support sustainable and green development in the country.
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The FCDO said in a statement: "This report is based on allocations made under the last Government. This Government’s development mission is to create a world free from poverty on a liveable planet."
Ministers are currently reviewing the 2024-25 ODA budget and will publish planned ODA allocations for 2024-25 in due course.