‘How does paying for the Spice Girls in Ethiopia help those in Nigeria?’

Nick Ferrari challenges charity director over keeping the vaccine in the UK or sending it overseas as part of foreign aid.

With the news the UK could be set to slash foreign aid spending in order to help fund the coronavirus crisis, Nick Ferrari spoke to one expert who was not in favour of the cuts.

Romilly Greenhill from the One Campaign said she was not in favour of cuts to the aid budget.

She claimed that helping others around the world was also in the interests of those in the UK.

One example which she raised was getting a possible coronavirus vaccine to people in Nigeria.

But Nick challenged the campaigner asking if it was not “more important to get it to people in Northampton first?”

When asked if she would support people in the UK getting the vaccine first the answer from Mrs Greenhill was “let’s have a conversation…”

Nick pressed the charity worker asking if not people in Northampton should see UK taxpayer money spent on them before being spent on those overseas.

But again the charity worker would not commit to an answer.

When Nick asked “how does paying for the Spice Girls in Ethiopia help those in Nigeria?”, the charity worker would not comment.

The conversation comes as the foreign aid budget could reportedly be cut temporarily after the UK’s public finances took a hit dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The Times reported plans had been drawn up to pare back the commitment to spend at least 0.7% of national income on foreign aid to 0.5%, and the move could be announced in the chancellor’s comprehensive spending review next week.

A Treasury official did not deny the report but declined to comment on speculation about fiscal events.

The UK has already said it would be cutting its global aid budget by £2.9 billion this year due to the economic hit of the coronavirus crisis, but that the 0.7% commitment towards international development would still be met.