The government spends more of the aid budget at home than on direct help overseas, estimates indicate.
The government is now spending more of the UK's foreign aid budget at home than on direct help for poor countries overseas, development experts say.
Aid charities say the changing allocations amount to a further squeeze on the aid budget, which have already been cut in absolute terms since 2020. This year has seen a massive increase in numbers of people arriving in the UK from Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as those travelling across the English Channel in small boats.
Paying for their accommodation, subsistence, health, travel and education is hugely expensive. Home Office officials told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee this week that hotel costs alone for asylum seekers and refugees are £6.8m a day. That works out at £2.4bn per year.