Treasury gets its sticky fingers on £79 Million EU flood aid

English South West MEP Graham Watson has reacted in fury to news that the Treasury will keep £79 Million of the £110 Million granted by the EU's Solidarity Fund to help with the clean-up from last year's floods.

"For the Treasury to deny the Department of Communities and Local Government over two-thirds of the EU flood solidarity money is thinly disguised theft. It also shows the absurdity of the so-called "rebate" negotiated by Mrs. Thatcher, which has always enriched the Chancellor at the expense of ordinary citizens".

It seems that not only in the Third World does aid intended to alleviate suffering of ordinary people finish in government pockets.