'It's INSANE!' SAS veteran asks why £98m foreign aid goes to nation with a SPACE programme

The Department for International Development said the UK will transfer £52million in aid to India this year, and £46million in 2019/20 as part of an aid budget which now costs £13.4billion a year.

Despite 230million people living in abject poverty, India is now rich enough to be able to afford to splurge £95.4million on a lunar probe called Chandrayaan-2, which is expected to launch later this year.

Speaking on Sky News’ The Pledge, ex-SAS soldier Phil Campion delivered a passionate speech in which he outlined why he saw the amount of aid India receives as necessary.

He said: “The UK’s Department for International Development works in deprived areas of the world to make sure aid money reaches people who need it.

“Now I don’t have a drama with giving aid to people who are suffering, especially if we had a hand in their misery.

“However, the decision to give £98 million pounds with of aid to a country that has a nuclear programme, a space programme and a thriving movie industry is insane.

He continued: “Yes, you heard me right, India has all of the above, not to mention that it gives out more than £650 million pounds in aid than it receives.

“Have we all gone mad? We have an NHS on its knees. All over, frontline services struggling to cope. Former servicemen are homeless and injured.

“Whoever is sanctioning this lunacy is having a long hard look at what is going on around them.

“What happened to charity begins at home? I know some amazing things I could do with £98 million, and it doesn’t include lobbing other country’s satellites up in the air for them”.

Although there is no suggestion British taxpayers’ money will be used to fund the lunar probe, MPs have received stinging criticism in their constituencies for the foreign aid budget.

David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, said this week: “The Indians don’t want or need our money. In effect, we are sponsoring an Indian Moon launch.”

India is a net donor of foreign aid, providing more assistance than it receives.

In 2015/16 it gave away £912million in aid but received £254million from overseas countries and global banks.

Chandrayaan-2 aims to demonstrate its growing technical abilities by landing a six-wheeled rover on the surface of the Moon – a mission seen by many as a direct challenge to China’s space ambitions.

But furious MPs have questioned why taxpayers’ cash is being funnelled to a fully-functioning democracy developing a growing aid programme of its own and pumping money into neighbours such as Bhutan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

The Department for International Development said “traditional financial aid” to India had ended and it now worked in partnership with other departments to deliver joint economic development priorities.

However, it confirmed the £98million it planned to send to India was taxpayers’ money that would “help stimulate prosperity, generate jobs, develop skills and open up new markets for both countries”.