How much is Bill Gates’ GAVI getting from UK’s foreign aid?
On Tuesday, Keir Starmer announced drastic cuts to Britain’s international aid budget to help pay for a major increase in defence spending. The aid budget will be reduced from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP.
We have heard many recipients of UK aid concerned about its impact on them. What we haven’t heard is what the UK is actually spending taxpayers’ money on.
“We will cut our spending on development assistance, moving from 0.5 per cent of GNI [gross national income] today to 0.3 per cent in 2027 … I am proud of our pioneering record on overseas development, and we will continue to play a key humanitarian role in Sudan, in Ukraine and in Gaza, tackling climate change, supporting multinational efforts on global health and challenges like vaccination,” Starmer said in a speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
Overseas development aid falls under the remit of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (“FCDO”) headed by David Lammy.
In a separate incident, social media users have recently claimed that Lammy’s FCDO had spent £521,525 on restaurants and bars from July to October 2024 – which brought an overkill reaction from “fact-checkers.”
“Fact-checkers” must now be using a bot farm or AI to disseminate their “reports” because the exact same “fact-check” with the same title, featuring the same image of David Lammy appeared in numerous outlets on Monday.
Copy and paste “Fact check: The Foreign Office spent £521,527 on restaurants and bars” into a search engine and you’ll see that the same “fact-check” article will appear in 80 different online outlets, all posted on Monday. One outlet is dubiously named ‘The Impartial Reporter’.
We guess whoever is pushing out “fact-checks” was desperately trying to get the message out. So, what was the message they were flooding the internet with? “This is not the figure for Mr. Lammy’s personal expenses. It is the total spent by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as a whole on restaurants and bars for the four months from July to October 2024,” the 80 “fact-check” articles said.
Read more: How much is Bill Gates’ GAVI getting from UK’s foreign aid?
Advertising by Adpathway
