Tory row over UK aid 'links to forced abortions in China'

Tory row over China erupts after report claims UK aid to Beijing is ‘being used to fund forced abortions’

• Tim Loughton urged Government to ‘end urgently’ UK assistance to the country
• FCDO insisted ‘no UK aid funds forced abortion practices in China’

A Tory row over China erupted last night as a report claimed UK aid has been funding forced abortions sanctioned by Beijing.

Senior Tory MP Tim Loughton called on the Government to ‘end urgently’ UK assistance to China on the back of an investigation by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children (SPUC).

It said the major inquiry, to be unveiled this week, ‘lays bare’ a scandal that, however well-intentioned, UK aid had directly or indirectly helped fund ‘coerced abortions in China’.

Last night the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) insisted ‘no UK aid funds forced abortion practices in China’. But Mr Loughton pledged to use the report’s findings in Parliament ‘to put pressure on the FCDO to end urgently UK aid going to China and to stop funding multinational organisations which collaborate with genocidal policies’.

The report found that coerced or forced abortions were happening on an industrial scale in China.

Senior Tory MP Tim Loughton called on the Government to ‘end urgently’ UK assistance to China on the back of an investigation by the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Children (File Photo)

Last night the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (pictured) insisted ‘no UK aid funds forced abortion practices in China’ (File image)

In Xinjiang province, where China is accused of genocide against the Uighur people, their population growth rate collapsed between 2015 and 2018 by more than 70 per cent and in some areas dropped to zero.

The SPUC report acknowledged the Government had committed to ending aid to China. But it said in 2019-20 the UK gave £82 million to the world’s second largest economy and £80 million to two international bodies which have supported family planning and reproductive services, including abortions in China.

It said in 2020-21, estimates suggested more than £60million of aid was given.

The report coincides with an SPUC poll showing that by more than two to one, the public opposes Britain funding abortion services abroad.

SPUC executive director Michael Robinson called the report’s findings ‘a slap in the face to the generosity of hard-pressed taxpayers who expect aid to help and support pregnant women, not be used in coerced or forced abortions’.

Government sources said the UK provided ‘aid to trusted multilateral organisations to help women and girls have control of their bodies’.

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