Wellingborough By-election: Foreign aid or council funding?

Should more of our taxes be spent on UK needs?

On Thursday, 15 February voters in Wellingborough will elect a new MP. The parties have been focussing on a number of issues during the campaign, but what do people living in the constituency want to hear them talk about, and do the candidates have answers?

'Why do we keep sending millions of pounds overseas when our local councils are struggling?'

Andy Swettenham, from Wellingborough, thinks we are spending too much on foreign aid

Andy Swettenham, who is 55 and retired, is concerned about how much is being spent on foreign aid.

"We keep hearing that councils are dead short of money and yet we are giving millions to countries like India who have a space programme," he says.

"It's wrong when council tax is going up. We need to cut back foreign aid and look after our country first."

What the candidates say (in alphabetical order)

Ana Savage Gunn - Liberal Democrats

I believe that we should send some money abroad to those countries that are in dire straits through famine, natural disasters or war. However, I also believe that we should properly fund local councils.

Ben Habib - Reform UK

We need to slash the foreign aid budget. The budget is around £10bn per annum, £4bn of which is spent on migrants entering the country illegally. Stop illegal migration through border control - not elaborate useless deportation schemes.

Helen Harrison - Conservative

Since 2020, we have introduced a temporarily reduction in our foreign spending from 0.7% to 0.5%. From this reduction, we have been able to allocate an additional 7.5% in our local council's core spending, equating to an extra £22.7m in funds. This means that we have more money to spend on our council services, road infrastructure and to protect our NHS.

Gen Kitchen - Labour

It is local councils that have borne the brunt of the Tories' economic mismanagement. Before 2010, it was vanishingly rare for councils to fall into serious financial difficulty. Since then, nine councils have been affected in just 14 years and we should expect more to come.

Will Morris - Green Party

If we support developing economies it enables them to generate meaningful employment, which in turn reduces economic migration. We must also consider supporting those countries suffering aggression. Properly handled aid is a win-win for the UK.

Andre Pyne-Bailey - Independent

Britain pledged to spend 0.7% of gross national income on which has now been reduced to 0.5%. The aid is used to support the poorest to have access to clean drinking water, medicines, education and to tackle climate change, among other things. Many of these issues could end up impacting lives in the UK if they are not addressed. 

Marion Turner-Hawes - Independent

I would push for much higher proportions of nationally held income from taxes to be paid to local communities and councils. I would press local councils receiving any extra funds to look first at supporting local people living in fuel, food and housing poverty and to the rebuilding of local public services, schools, transport and education, before moving to cut council tax levels for the more wealthy in our communities.

Kevin Watts - Independent

There should be an international outcry about countries that have a space programme but have starving citizens. That includes our country. We are a part of the European space agency and have millions going to food banks. If a country is desperately in need we should help. However, let's get rid of the food banks by making sure our citizens have wages etc to live on.

Three of the candidates: Nick the Flying Brick, Alex Merola from Britain First and Ankit Love Jay Mala did not reply to our request to take part.