Calls to halt Britain's £400m aid after Malawi President Peter Mutharika vows to buy PRIVATE JET

The President of Malawi said he wanted the jet to avoid queuing at airports

Malawi's leader Peter Mutharika has revealed he wants an Air Force One-style presidential jet in order to avoid airport queues or the "inconvenience" of waiting for flights.

After returning from a recent trip abroad, the east African country's president said: "Imagine spending seven hours at Tambo Airport in Johannesburg [South Africa] just to connect to [Malawi's capital] Lilongwe? How inconveniencing."

The country's  Information Minister, Kondwani Nankhumwa, also attempted to justify the need for the president of one of the poorest countries in the world to have his own private plane.

"In all fairness every country needs a presidential jet for convenient travelling," he said.

"The President experiences a lot of time losses in flight connections whenever he is on public flights, hence affecting his schedules."

The remarks have sparked an angry response both in Britain and Malawi, with critics branding the request “absurd”- not least because more than half of Malawians live on less than a $1 a day.

The UK Government sends millions of pounds in aid to the impoverished African state, with this year's budget estimated at more than £83million – equating to 1.18 per cent of Britain's total foreign aid budget. 

Between 2009 and 2013, Britain’s overseas aid allowance for Malawi topped £300million.

But the Department for International Development (DfID) stressed no UK aid money had been given to the government of Malawi since 2013, when it was suspended over claims of corruption.

Instead, millions in taxpayer funding was funnelled to projects carried out by independent aid agencies. 

IG

A previous Malawian president blew £8.3m on a new jet

Mr Mutharika gained notoriety after he struck up a friendship with pop star Madonna during her last trip to the country , when she adopted two children.

Madonna always arrives in Malawi on her private Gulfstream jet.

However, Mr Mutharika himself is forced to rely on a mixture of chartered and commercial flights. 

Air Force One, the name given to the US president's aircraft, costs an estimated £118,000 an hour to run.

Officials in Washington claim a replacement for the jumbo jet would set the US taxpayer back £254million. 

It's because so much aid goes to leaders like him that countries like Malawi remain so poor even after billions have been donated by the West

Jonathan Foreman, expert in UK aid

Mr Mutharika is likely to opt for a more modest jet, similar to those used by neighbouring African presidents, but it could still severely dent the national budget of one of the world's poorest nations by millions of pounds. 

Malawi ranks as the 174th poorest nation out of 187 in the Human Development Index – a universally-accepted benchmark that takes into account average income and life expectancy. 

Nathan Gill, UKIP's development spokesman, said: "A new Gulfstream [aircraft] costs £42million, more than 50 per cent of the UK's aid to that troubled country. 

"This just highlights UKIP's policy of reducing our development spending and concentrating on dropping trade barriers. 

"If we did that maybe the people of Malawi would benefit and not just their ridiculous elite".