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Minister says EU is wasting British aid

A Tory minister has ramped up Coalition tensions over Europe by complaining the UK is being forced to waste huge sums on undeserving causes.

International Development Minister Alan Duncan said the EU is failing to focus aid on poverty and suggested the Government could reclaim control of how the money is spent.

The remarks will delight many on the Conservative right who have been urging David Cameron to claw back powers and cash from Brussels.

The Prime Minister is also expected to face more pressure over Britain's overall aid spending at the party's conference in Birmingham next week.

One-sixth of the Department for International Development's budget, around £1.6 billion, is diverted to the EU's EuropeAid vehicle, but questions have been raised about projects receiving money from the pooled budget.

Some £800,000 has reportedly been allocated to a water park being built in Morocco. Britain has not considered the country a worthy candidate for bilateral aid for a decade.

Mr Duncan said: "We share the people's anger on this. We are forced to give money to the European Union. We ask them to focus aid on poverty but they don't, and we have no choice in the matter."

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