Eight different ways Ukip would spend Britain's international aid budget

The Autumn Statement was Ukip’s first economic test as a Westminster party, so how did they fare? In their initial response, economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn lambasted George Osborne for ‘smoke and mirror politics’ over the deficit. ‘The brutal truth is that the Government has comprehensively failed in its central mission to wipe out the deficit’, said O’Flynn. But where would Ukip cut back spending?

‘So huge and unaffordable expenditures are continuing in the areas of foreign aid, alternative energy, an excessive per capita spending settlement for Scotland and of course our massive net EU contribution.’

Ah, international aid. The Sunday Telegraph’s Iain Martin had a tête-à-tête on Twitter with Douglas Carswell about Ukip’s pledges to slash aid spending, currently at 0.7 per cent of GDP. But this is by far no means the first time Ukip has promised to cut foreign aid and push the money elsewhere. Here are eight areas in this year alone Ukip has promised to fund spending through foreign aid cuts: Defence: Farage wrote in his Daily Express column on 3 December ‘if there’s one government department that needs more spending it’s defence’. And it would be funded by:

‘I’m only talking about a fraction of our overall government spending and I think there’s quite a realistic argument that says we can cut foreign aid most of which is not actually spent on genuine humanitarian terms.’

Cutting 40p tax rate: Ukip said at their conference they would cut the 40p tax rate, funded by a cut in the foreign aid budget. As the BBC reported in September:

‘The UK Independence Party has said it would cut income tax from 40p to 35p for people earning up to £55,000. ‘In a plan to win the “blue-collar vote”, Nigel Farage’s party pledged to fund the changes by leaving the EU and cutting UK foreign aid by 85%’

Inheritance Tax: Along with cutting Britain’s contribution to the EU, Ukip has said that knocking off £8 billion from the foreign aid budget could go towards scrapping the Inheritance Tax. According to a Daily Express report:

‘Ukip officials insist that major cuts could be made to public spending that would leave the Treasury new funds to significantly reduce the tax burden including scrapping death duty. The party believes £10billion could be saved by ending Britain’s annual net contribution to the EU. It also wants to drastically cut Britain’s spending on foreign aid from the current £11billion a year to around £2billion.’

Business taxes: In his Independent column, Farage outlined how Britain’s EU contribution could help make Britain more open to business:

‘But equally there are areas where government spending is a detriment to an efficient economy since it wastes money which could be going towards helping businesses which creates jobs and income. I think that the billions we spend on our EU contributions and the foreign aid budget would be a good place to start/’

Dealing with the deficit: Ukip’s policy chief Tim Aker told Prospect magazine that foreign aid is an ‘obvious target’ in the party’s plan for lowering the deficit. In their local election manifesto, Ukip also said:

‘…membership of the EU costs £55m a day – and another £23m a day goes out in foreign aid – while jobs, services and benefits are being cut at home. UKIP believes that we should save that money to help rebuild our debt-ridden economy.’

Flood defences: In the Daily Express, Farage argued earlier this year that we should be spending money on flood defences, not foreign aid:

‘I also believe that charity starts at home and when we have people in this country who have paid taxes all their lives seeing everything they own be ruined under a deluge of water we should be looking to divert foreign aid to the people in the UK who really need it’

NHS: On Ukip’s website, Tim Aker suggested that ‘Ukip will defend the NHS and services you rely on’. While noting savings can be made from quangos and offences, he said ‘the other parties want cuts at home while sending £55m a day to the EU and increasing foreign aid. UKIP believes charity begins at home.’ Local services: Ukip’s local election manifesto from May stated ‘money should be used for local services, not the EU, foreign aid and foreign wars’. In response, a Ukip spokesman said that ‘spending plans, alongside plans for savings will be made clear in our forthcoming manifesto. It is clear that money can only be spent once.’ But as you can see from these mixed messages, Ukip has a way to go before it has an economic policy that adds up. The party’s momentum will stall if it can’t convince voters that it is more than a just protest party. Doing that will require gaining some economic credibility.