UK to divert foreign aid to military

Billions of pounds from Britain’s foreign aid budget could be spent on the country’s military adventures, British Prime Minister David Cameron has said during his visit to India.

Cameron said the Department for International Development works closely with both the Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense, adding that foreign interventions to prove a “basic level of stability and security” would be part of Britain’s “foreign aid”.

“We should be thinking very carefully about how we help states that have been riven by conflict and war. I think it’s obviously true that if you can help deliver security and help provide stability then that is the base from which all development can proceed,” he claimed.

The decision to divert foreign aid to military seems primarily aimed at pacifying members of Cameron’s own Conservative Party, who oppose the prospect of cuts to the country’s military budget.

This comes as Max Lawson, head of policy at leading British charity against global poverty Oxfam, has blasted the move saying Britain’s aid money should go to “schools, not soldiers.”