EXCLUSIVERevealed: £1.8BILLION of taxpayers' foreign aid has gone to 30 countries richer than the poorest UK borough - including to one nation better off than 75% of us! (and don't mention the £250,000 sent to China to make a robot babysitter for chickens)

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At least £1.8billion of taxpayer cash has gone to countries richer than Britain's poorest borough, shock analysis shows.

In the third and final part of our expose laying bare the extraordinary magnitude of the UK's 'wasted' foreign aid budget, MailOnline can disclose 30 countries possessing a higher GDP per capita than Lewisham (£16,258) have received handouts since 2009.

Oil-rich Guyana (£38,100) was the richest benefactor of the UK's generosity.

Figures held by the Office for National Statistics suggest 75 per cent of the 361 authorities dotted across Britain come below that GDP threshold.

Among the nations who benefited from Britain's donations and were wealthier than Lewisham was China (£17,100), one of the world's economic powerhouses.

Between 2009-2023, £545m of official development assistance (ODA) was given to Beijing directly, according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) most up-to-date expenditure breakdown.

This went on projects including the Prosperity Fund – a purpose-built uni-lateral assistance programme which has channelled £36.4m to China to improve its energy and sustainability credentials.

Under that umbrella scheme is one project 'designed to support the internationalisation of the Chinese film industry' and another to 'promote regulatory reform of the Shenzhen private equity market'.

Also in the China aid pool is a £250,000 grant from the now-defunct Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to develop a robot babysitter for chickens. 

The 'Envirobot' is described as an 'autonomous roving platform' that monitors poultry by going cage-to-cage. It is needed because the 'technologies currently used in facilities in China' aren't good enough, according to its project description.

Elliot Keck, head of campaigns at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'Taxpayers will be furious that hundreds of millions in aid have been handed to a global superpower like China.

'From propping up the Chinese film industry to funding robot chicken babysitters, this isn’t foreign aid — it’s farce.

'The government shouldn’t be funnelling cash to Beijing while frontline services at home are suffering.'

Some also goes towards Chevening scholarships for Chinese students. 

According to the British Embassy in Beijing, the scheme 'provides a unique opportunity for Chinese leaders of the future to build a global network of continuing professional significance'.

Chevening Scholarship recipients have their flights, accommodation and tuition fees paid for. They are available to 'outstanding emerging leaders' from across the world to pursue one-year master's degrees in Britain.

Chevening alumni includes 20 former or current heads of state or government.

Receipts published by the FCDO only track bilateral aid – that 'provided either directly or indirectly through delivery partners to developing countries'.

Billions more is spent each year on multilateral aid, which are the UK's donations to international organisations such as the World Health Organization and The Green Climate Fund, who then divide cash out independently.

It means the true sum given to China could be even higher than official documents suggest. 

In terms of the 30 nations richer than Lewisham, only Turkey (with a GDP of £26,710 per capita) pocketed more than China (£555m).

The rest was split between Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Georgia, Guyana, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, North Korea, North Macedonia, Oman, Panama, Serbia, Seychelles, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.  

Latest ONS figures, covering 2022, show Lewisham had the lowest relative GDP.

Behind it came South Tyneside (£16,624), East Renfrewshire (£16,692), Castle Point (£16,709) and Ards and North Down (£17,635).

In total, four authorities across the country had GDPs lower than China. Comparitive figures for nations were taken from OurWorldinData.

Current parliamentary targets state the UK must donate 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) to foreign aid. This amounted to £15.3bn in 2023/24.

Receipts for 2024/25 won't be totted up until this autumn, although Labour only allocated £13.3bn towards aid.  

The pot will rise to £13.7bn in 2025/26, although Labour has vowed to slash the pot to just 0.3 per cent of GNI by 2027, under plans to save in excess of £6bn that year alone.

This will all instead be pumped into defence spending to bolster Britain's military might should tensions with Russia boil over into a full-blown conflict.

Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, who served as shadow Foreign Secretary under Rishi Sunak, told MailOnline that Sir Keir Starmer's slashing of foreign aid budgets opens the door for malicious states to gain ground.

He said: 'Develop and defence are two sides of the same coin. 

'Development tackles pandemics and disease, migration and, crucially, conflict.

'By vacating the field as we are, we open up space for countries who don't wish us well, like China and Russia, to fill the space, which they are already doing.'

It comes after MailOnline revealed how nearly a third of the budget is being swallowed by hosting asylum seekers and refugees in Britain.

Close to £4.3bn was spent on so-called 'in donor refugee costs' in 2023 – a nine-fold rise since before Covid, reflecting the soaring toll of small boat crossings.

Up to £8.2m per day goes towards accommodation for asylum seekers, with the rest of the pot divided towards education, health and other social needs.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, said the spend on in-house migrants represented one of the worst fiscal judgements from the Home Office.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) watchdog, which scrutinises the UK's official development assistance (ODA) – or overseas aid budget, warns vital projects will inevitably be canned unless the government slashes the bill.

The UK allocated just £2.7bn directly to specific countries in bilateral aid in 2023 – down from £5.9bn in 2019.

The ICAI said the cut was 'heavily impacted by budget reductions and rising in-donor refugee costs'.

An FCDO spokesperson said: 'We are committed to modernising our approach with less money: working with our partners in new ways to maximise our impact. 

'These latest changes to the ODA budget will give greater certainty and stability, helping us provide the best value for money for taxpayers. 

'The UK ODA budget will be gradually reduced from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent GNI by 2027/28, in order to fund a necessary increase in defence spending. 

'To enable us to deliver this change effectively, we are maximising our flexibility by focusing on meeting legally binding commitments and delivering work already underway, while continuing to play a key humanitarian role in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.

'Our development spending is a strategic investment that contributes to a safer, more prosperous UK. Global challenges like conflict, the climate crisis and poverty directly affect British lives, through irregular migration pressures, reduced trading opportunities and threats to our national security.'