TORY backbencher Philip Davies has torn into Theresa May over Britain's spending on foreign aid.

Mr Davies, MP for Shipley, said the spending made the country look "idiotic", rather than compassionate.

And he asked whether the Prime Minister had a "strange political aversion" to policies that might be popular with the public.

Speaking during Prime Minister's Questions today, the outspoken MP criticised the foreign aid budget, which is 0.7 per cent of gross national income.

He said: "The repeated claim that spending ever-increasing amounts of money on overseas aid keeps this country safe has been shown by recent events to be utter nonsense.

“Can I tell the Prime Minister that spending more and more money on overseas aid each year does not make us look compassionate to the public, it makes us look idiotic to the public when that money is much needed in the United Kingdom.

"So can she promise to slash the overseas aid budget and spend it on priorities in the UK?

"I hope she doesn't have a strange political aversion to pursuing any policies that might be popular with the public."

His speech was met with jeers from other MPs in the House of Commons.

Mrs May responded by saying that as a major economy, Britain was in a position to help people around the world.

She said: “I can assure my honourable friend that I don’t have that aversion but on this issue, I do take a different view.

“I think it is important that given the position that we hold, given the state of our economy as one of the largest economies in the world, that we actually recognise that we can help those around the world.”