Bill Gates has voiced his disappointment at the UK's autumn budget after Chancellor Rachel Reeves failed to increase foreign aid funding to cover the cost of housing refugees.
Ms Reeves conceded that there was little prospect of foreign aid spending returning to 0.7 per cent of the UK's national income during the next five years, a target abolished in 2021. The department she leads acknowledged that much of its aid budget was being diverted to accommodate asylum seekers in the UK.
Campaigners were left disheartened after Ms Reeves announced no new funding to cover continuing asylum costs. The previous government topped up the aid budget by £2.5 billion ($3.25 billion) in 2022 because of the number of refugees arriving from Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Mr Gates, the American businessman and philanthropist, called the autumn budget a “disappointing outcome for the world’s most vulnerable people”, according to the BBC. Gideon Rabinowitz, a director of civil society network Bond, said it amounted to a “short-sighted decision”.
Mr Rabinowitz said: “By refusing to renew the top-ups made by the previous government to offset the rising costs of housing asylum seekers in the UK, aid will plummet this year. We must support asylum seekers, but funding should come from a dedicated budget.”
Treasury documents said spending the foreign aid budget on housing refugees in the UK was in line with international guidance, but has had “significant implications” for overseas development spending.
The Labour government has promised to tackle the hot-button issue of asylum seekers crossing the English Channel on small boats. The Home Office has been promised more than £800 million ($1.04 billion), saved by scrapping a Conservative plan to deport failed asylum seekers to Rwanda. The Labour government is setting up a new border security command to tackle people smuggling.
“The government is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall, has taken measures to reduce the asylum backlog and is ending the use of expensive hotel accommodation,” the Treasury said. “These plans should create more space in the [foreign aid] budget to spend on our international development priorities overseas.”
Labour says it wants to restore foreign aid spending to 0.7 per cent of national income “as soon as the fiscal circumstances allow” but Ms Reeves's autumn budget papers say fiscal tests introduced by the Conservatives are not due to be met within the current five-year parliament. The figure was 0.58 per cent last year.
Defending her budget to broadcasters on Wednesday, Ms Reeves conceded that her tax increases might limit pay rises but said she had no alternative because of a "black hole in the public finances". She called it a "budget to the slate clean after the mismanagement and the cover-up of the previous government".
Sarah Champion, a Labour member of parliament who chairs the House of Commons development committee, said the aid announcements were only a “nod in the right direction”. She said the government had adopted “unachievable fiscal rules regarding foreign aid spend” from the Conservatives.
“While I’m relieved the government has recognised the foreign aid budget must be protected from paying the Home Office costs of housing asylum seekers, it should have been more ambitious in addressing this,” she said. “For too long, the Home Office has been given a blank cheque to a budget already victim to significant cuts.”
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
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Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
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Ahmed Raza
UAE cricket captain
Age: 31
Born: Sharjah
Role: Left-arm spinner
One-day internationals: 31 matches, 35 wickets, average 31.4, economy rate 3.95
T20 internationals: 41 matches, 29 wickets, average 30.3, economy rate 6.28
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A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
Cryptocurrency Investing for Dummies – by Kiana Danial
There are several primers for investing in cryptocurrencies available online, including e-books written by people whose credentials fall apart on the second page of your preferred search engine.
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