MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Tory MPs furious with Cameron over aid programs to Argentina

”Why on Earth are we sending aid to Argentina?”, said MP Ian Liddell-Grainger

Even when there has been no official reply from London to Argentina's message to mark the 181th anniversary (January 3) of what it considers “the usurpation of our Malvinas Islands”, there was a strong reaction from Tory MPs when it was revealed that UK contributes several million pounds in aid programs to Argentina.

 According to the UK media the revelation provoked a furious reaction from Tory MPs and is 'an embarrassment for Prime Minister David Cameron', who only last month was accusing Argentina of ‘shameful’ attempts to bully the islands.

To mark the 181th anniversary of British rule of the Falklands the Argentine government issued a five-page rant by foreign minister Hector Timerman, in which he accuses the UK of ‘colonial and military occupation of Argentine territory’.

Mr Timerman said that the UK is 'the lion that roars, but does not inspire fear any more’ and directly criticized PM Cameron Christmas pledge to defend the Falklands.

He said: ‘As a corollary to a year in which the British Government issued threats to several independent countries, to such an extent that the British Parliament itself had to reject its attempts to launch military actions in the Middle East, the British Government devoted a paragraph of its Christmas address to the military defense of the Malvinas Islands, forgetting, if the British Government was ever able to appreciate it, the peace message that Christmas should inspire.

‘Perhaps this was the expression of a failed attempt to confuse the world as to the colonial and military occupation of Argentine territory, and the result of the lack of legal and historical arguments.’

Argentina has stepped up its harassment of the Falklands as the development of the Islands oil and gas industry advances, and passed legislation which threatens oil executives who get involved in exploration in its waters with 15-year jail terms.

Official figures show that Argentina received more than £2million from Britain in 2012 and it is understood that this aid is continuing.

A government source insisted Britain has no bilateral aid program with Argentina, adding: ‘All of the programs we do finance are aimed at building long-term partnerships with the Argentine people – including businesses and future leaders – or tackling global issues, such as climate change and human rights.’

Britain also contributes £7million to a £50million EU aid program to Argentina. Last year Britain’s aid budget increased by 30%. However Argentina is now considered a relatively wealthy country, as a member of the G20 group of leading economies and thus has lost many of these benefits.

Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, a Member of Parliament’s all-party group on the Falklands, said: ‘Why on Earth are we sending aid to Argentina? It is absolutely ridiculous. They are behaving outrageously towards the Falklands and they hardly need the money.

‘People will be rightly shocked that we are giving money to Argentina at a time when they are trying to stop our shipping from going to the Falklands and threatening to prosecute companies that explore for oil there.’

Fellow Tory Peter Bone said: ‘People will be appalled that we are sending aid to Argentina – a country that is making aggressive claims on the Falkland Islands. There can be no justification for it and it must stop.’

Jonathan Isaby, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said the figures underlined concerns the Government was “more interested in meeting Mr. Cameron’s target of spending 0.7% of our income on aid than on ensuring it is well spent”.