Spending foreign aid budget on refugees in UK is ‘wreaking havoc’, says watchdog

Government's aid watchdog says Foreign Office taking financial hit' for Home Office overspending

The UK government's decision to use the overseas aid budget to pay for supporting refugees in Britain is wreaking havoc" with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's development partnerships, an official government watchdog said on Wednesday after it was revealed that 4.3bn was diverted to support refugees in 2023.

Official statistics show 27.9% of the total UK aid budget in 2023 was spent on supporting the first-year housing and food costs of refugees in Britain, an increase of 600m.