Stop aid to India, says Lord Paul
Britain should end its £227 million a year aid for India as it is an "abuse to the poor", the Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton has said.
Lord Swraj Paul, who was born in India but has been a British citizen since the 1960s, accused the Government of using it as a way of fostering trade links.
Critics have long accused the Government of wasting money by giving it to India – a country rich enough to have its own space programme.
In an exclusive interview with the Express & Star, the 82-year-old founder of steel and engineering giant Caparo, which has sites in Wednesbury, Wolverhampton, Cradley Heath and Dudley, said there was no point in the foreign aid system for India, which has a $2 trillion economy growing at six per cent a year.
Lord Paul was speaking in Delhi where he has been on a trade mission with the University of Wolverhampton to promote links with India and encourage more foreign students to come to the UK.
He said: "I don't think that we should be giving foreign aid.
"We keep being told that it will help trade. That's an abuse of the poor people of India.
"What is the point anyway? India gives money to Africa and receives money from Britain. But the work being done to remove poverty is very little."
Financial aid for India is due to end by 2015 with the British government wanting to focus more on skill sharing.
Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West accompanied David Cameron on a recent trip to India to promote trade.
He said: "We are reining aid back from 2015 and that is wise.
"There are issues in India around global poverty but we have to look at where India is and take a position on how beneficial that aid will be in the future."
For the full interview, see today's Express & Star
