Take back your criminals or lose your overseas aid – radical shakeup considered by Priti Patel

AID chief Priti Patel is considering slashing overseas aid to countries that refuse to accept foreign national offenders deported from the UK.

Ministers yesterday said the proposals were part of a “debate and discussion” as part of a radical shake-up of the £12 billion aid budget.

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Speaking in the Commons, Brexit campaigner Dominic Raab urged the Government to revise the criteria for bilateral aid to punish countries “refusing point blank to accept” foreign criminals.

Aid Minister James Wharton said it was part of the review being carried out by International Development Secretary Priti Patel.

“We want to ensure that every penny we spend is spent wisely,” he said.

Figures earlier this summer revealed there are 13,000 foreign criminals awaiting deportation from the UK – an amount thought to include hundreds of Jamaicans and Nigerians.

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The revelation came just hours after Mrs Patel told the Sun that she was radically reshaping the aid budget to focus on cutting the migrant tide and creating jobs in poor countries.

Speaking to MPs she said too much of Britain’s £12 billion aid budget had been “stolen or wasted” – and revealed she had stopped millions of cash going out the door during her seven weeks in charge.

But she insisted she was “passionate” about much of the work the Department does, and stuck by the Government’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national output on overseas aid.

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She added the UK would be “taking back control” of the £1.4 billion of taxpayers cash that goes into EU aid programmes once we leave – in a direct threat to Brussels.

“We will have control over that money that currently goes to the EU,” she said. “That will give my Department greater say over how that money is used and is leveraged.”

Dominic Raab told the Sun: “Priti Patel is shaking things up, and she’s right to look at ways of stopping countries having a free-ride, gladly accepting millions of taxpayers’ money, but point blank refusing to take back criminals who clog up UK jails.”