Protect foreign aid by law, says Clegg

Left: Nick Clegg at the United Nations.

Britain's £9.1 billion aid budget is due to increase under the ConLib coalition.

Meanwhile our threadbare armed forces are facing further cuts, thus putting troops in danger on the ground.

As Ed Balls proposed large scale cuts to Britain's education budget in 2009, African schools will receive £8.5 billion courtesy of British tax payers over the next ten years.

Britain spent almost £10billion on foreign aid last year – with the biggest chunk going to India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Now Nick Clegg trys to justify the insane amount of our taxes being paid to countries such as Indian and China during a speech at the U.N.

The Daily Mail reports - Nick Clegg has mounted a robust defence of the foreign aid bill and claimed that the coalition will commit Britain by law to spend billions overseas every year.

Addressing the United Nations, the Deputy Prime Minister said that Britain would spend 0.7 per cent of its total income on foreign aid by 2013 – a pledge that will be enshrined in law two years ahead of a UN deadline.

The figure is to soar within two years, particularly if the economy bounces back, making aid the only budget except for health that is given special protection from spending cuts.

Mr Clegg insisted that the aid bill was in our ‘self-interest’ and linked the plight of the poor abroad to terrorism (sic) and immigration problems at home (sic).

He admitted he had a ‘job to explain to people back home’ why the UK would put into law its promise to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid.

A commitment on aid was dropped in the Queen’s Speech despite being a manifesto pledge for the Tories.

But Mr Clegg said it would become law within three years. Read more: