PRITI Patel warns the government is “throwing away” cash as a new report reveals the UK has handed £85 billion to global quangos over 12 years.
Analysis by the Taxpayers’ Alliance lays bare the billions sent to huge international bodies through the foreign aid budget.
It includes over £2.1 billion on the International Monetary Fund over nine years where gloomsters have been accused of doing down Britain with overly pessimistic forecasts.
AlamyJacob Rees-Mogg[/caption]
Billions have gone to the World Health Organisation – heavily criticised for how it handled Covid. And the umbrella agency United Nations where the boss Antonio Gutteres who recently sparked fury when he said Hamas’ attack on Israel “did not happen in a vacuum.”
The TPA said the UK government is set to spend a jaw dropping £7.5 billion per year on global quangos from 2022 to 2027. This could cover the salaries of 200,000 nurses, they added.
Ex-Home Secretary Ms Patel said: “The billions of pounds spent by ministers and civil servants is taxpayers’ money who will naturally think that their Government is throwing away their hard earned cash to unaccountable international organisations, with little scrutiny or oversight in terms of what this means for them.”
Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg added: “I think we should make the payment to the IMF performance related. So that if they forecast the UK economy correctly we will pay them and if they get it wrong we won’t. As they always get it wrong – we would save a lot of money.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “It is wrong to describe the UK’s multilateral partners as ‘international quangos’.
“Organisations such as the UN, WHO, World Bank and Red Cross, backed by UK funding, help deliver critical services in health, education and water and sanitation and provide critical relief in times of humanitarian crises, supporting some of the world’s most vulnerable people in countries like Sudan, Yemen and Ukraine.”
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