British taxpayers fund £1.8m Barbados hotel

Barbados. PA

Millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money are being spent on funding aid projects abroad, including a scheme to promote tourism in an Icelandic national park and the building of a hotel in Barbados.

A Sunday Telegraph investigation revealed that contributions made to a European development aid budget, mean that wealthy countries, like Brazil, China, Iceland and Barbados are benefitting from funds - despite the Coalition's pledge to only target the most needy.

The Daily Mail reports that £1.8 million is being used for the construction of a hotel and leisure complex in the Caribbean island of Barbados, where 200 young people will be trained in hospitality management each year.

A sixth of the money spent by the Department for International Development goes to the EU's aid programme and despite Britain's belief that these countries are too wealthy to merit the support, half of the £10 billion budget is going towards the development of 'middle and higher income' states.

China has been given £30million in aid even though it is home to around 150 billionaires, while Russia, which has over 100 billionaires, has received £40million.

Conservative MP Tory MP Dominic Raab said: 'It is farcical that the EU spends nearly a billion pounds of UK taxpayers' money and a significant proportion of Britain's aid on middle income countries.

'Not only does that conflict with British aid priorities, but EU development funds have been plagued by maladministration and fraud. This is a clear example of the folly of moves towards a single European foreign policy.'

Member of the International Development Select Committee and Conservative MP Pauline Latham said: 'It is time to renegotiate the amount of money we give to Europe for aid. If the public really knew that our money was going to countries like Turkey, China, Russia, Iceland and Brazil they would be furious.'

Money has been sent to Argentina, one of the G20 major economies whose relations with the UK remain strained over Buenos Aires still claiming the Falkland Islands.

And while Croatia received £120million from the EU, impoverished Mali in West Africa received just £13.5million.

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