[Omah]

... but insists raising spending to £12bn is 'essential'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1SVgf1cj7

David Cameron will today admit that millions of pounds of foreign aid has been ‘wasted’, but insist this is not a reason to turn off the tap.

The Prime Minister, on a curtailed tour of Africa, will hit out at those in his own party who criticise his decision to pour billions more into foreign aid at a time of cutbacks at home.

In a speech in Lagos, Nigeria, he will declare: ‘The aid sceptics are wrong. Aid is essential. It can work and we are making it work.’

Mr Cameron will acknowledge that critics of the plan to raise aid spending by 34 per cent to £12billion have ‘powerful arguments’.

He will say: ‘There are some people back at home who don’t like Britain’s aid commitment.

‘They see us make painful cuts to budgets at home and wonder why we are increasing our spending abroad.

And they look at where some of our aid money has gone in recent years – on the wrong priorities and into the wrong hands – and think: this is all being wasted.

They have a point. Some of our money has been wasted. But that’s not an argument to stop aid. It’s an argument to change the way aid is delivered and that’s what we’re doing.’

Mr Cameron will say that aid should be used to boost infrastructure and trade to ‘move people from dependence to independence’.

He will call on Africa’s politicians to show more leadership in tackling corruption and lifting trade barriers.

The irony .....