David Cameron defended growing overseas aid spending today by arguing it could reduce immigration.
He spoke out after Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom accused him of giving money to “bongo bongo land” — comments the Prime Minister branded “offensive”.
But the Tory leader also made an appeal to critics of Britain’s aid spending — some £8.6 billion a year and rising — to accept that helping other countries avoided waves of immigration during emergencies such as war or famine.
Mr Cameron’s appeal to national self-interest seemed aimed at traditional Tory voters who might sympathise with Mr Bloom’s criticism of aid and be tempted to defect to Ukip.
Tory jitters over the issue were raised today when the Daily Mail devoted four pages to the controversy, including examples of “flagrant” abuse of aid money. Mr Cameron told BBC Breakfast: “I think it is an offensive remark anyway, but what I think is wrong is this sort of ‘stop the world, I want to get off’ approach just doesn’t work.
“Britain is a very open international country. The problems elsewhere come and visit us. So it makes sense I think to have an overseas aid programme that helps solve these problems at source.”
He added: “I would say to people: even if you are not persuaded of the moral case of helping the poorest in the world ... there’s actually a national self-interest that if we invest in these countries we can stop the mass migration.”
Ukip, which hopes to beat the Tories in next May’s European elections, is enjoying the attention. MEP Roger Helmer tweeted: “A wonderful storm of synthetic indignation over Godfrey Bloom’s robust language. But he’s on the right side of the argument.”
