Nigel Farage makes surprising call to treble British aid to Nepal

He said he had 'no objections' to increasing disaster relief to upwards of £60million

Nigel Farage, who intends – if Ukip were ever to miraculously get into power – to tackle the deficit by significantly slashing overseas aid, has made a plea with regards to Nepal.

The party leader is backing doubling or trebling British aid to the country, which was left devastated by an 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week.

He said he had “no objections” to increasing disaster relief to upwards of £60million – far more than the coalition’s current response of £22.8million.

“I have no objections to helping with disaster relief but I have a problem with foreign aid that frankly isn't working, is going to the wrong places, and does not command public support.”

Back in December, Farage told LBC: “Of the £11 billion a year that we spend on foreign aid, only £2 billion of it is spent on genuine humanitarian [things], you know, inoculation or clean water.

“So I’d cut £9 billion from that because frankly it’s just being used as an arm of foreign policy.”

In March, the party pledged to spend £3 billion more than the Tories on defence and paying for it by quitting the EU, axing foreign aid and HS2 and slashing Scotland’s budget. This was despite Farage insisting that Britain should stop its “endless foreign wars”.

Patrick O’Flynn, Ukip’s economics spokesman, said the pledge would allow Britain to “properly fund our defence and still have a skeptical position about getting dragged into foreign wars”.

---

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as is possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)