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FOREIGN AID FARCE

Priti Patel faces backlash after agreeing to hand £25 million to Palestine – despite fears cash is going to terrorists

MPs blasted the Government amid claims cash supposedly paying civil servants in Gaza was being used to pay salaries for terrorists

AID Secretary Priti Patel faces a backlash after agreeing to hand £25 million to Palestine – despite fears taxpayers’ cash is going to terrorists.

The Department for International Development (Dfid) yesterday revealed a new agreement had been signed to once more send a small fortune in aid to the Palestinian authorities next year.

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Priti Patel got a blasting from MPs on foreign aid this weekCredit: PA:Press Association

MPs this summer blasted the Government amid claims cash supposedly paying civil servants in Gaza was being used to pay salaries for terrorists and families of suicide bombers.

DfiD yesterday insisted that the new money would only be funding the pay of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives on a vetted list.

But it admitted this meant the Palestinian authorities would now pay the civil servants’ salaries themselves.

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The aid secretary said that from now on, only vetted organisations would receive any cashCredit: Fame Flynet

The new contract comes just a day after it emerged Britain was still paying aid to China – the fastest growing superpower in the world.

Earlier this week it emerged another £5.2 million of UK taxpayers’ cash had gone to Ethiopia’s Spice Girls – to fund their new talk show.

Former Cabinet heavyweight Eric Pickles in June said UK aid for Palestine was "freeing up" money for criminals languishing in jail for terrorism offences.

Yesterday Mr Pickles, head of the Conservative Friends of Israel, said yesterday was an “important step forward”. CFI President Lord Polak urged DfiD to “rigorously scrutinise” the Palestinian authority to ensure it is no longer “misusing British taxpayers’ money”.

The UK is bound by a law introduced by David Cameron’s Government to pay £12 billion a year in overseas aid, 0.7 per cent of economic output.

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Sir Eric Pickles welcomed the news to only spent money on vetted organisationsCredit: PA:Press Association
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