HELENSBURGH'S MP has urged the government not to cut aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Brendan O'Hara was joined by members from other parties, including Conservative backbenchers, in speaking against budget cuts - amid accusations UK Government funding has dropped by 80 oer cent.

The aid helps finance refugee camps housing Rohingya Muslims who have fled military persecution in Myanmar.

More than a million Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar over several decades, including about 740,000 who have crossed the border since August 2017.

Their plight was the subject of a backbench debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Mr O'Hara told MPs at Westminster that the UK must “at very least” restore the original official development assistance to Bangladesh, adding not to do so would be “shortsighted at best”.

Shadow international development secretary Preet Kaur Gill said: “It is imperative that Britain plays its full part in the response to the Rohingya crisis, to secure the decent future that they deserve.

“As international attention dwindles, the Government must reflect on its role in this and ask what will become of those million of refugees, stateless, fenced in, increasingly hungry and at the mercy of people traffickers.”

Responding, Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said: “We continue to be steadfast in our support to the Rohingya population and indeed to the government of Bangladesh.

“We will continue to support that response until conditions are right for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of the Rohingya to their homeland.

“The UK has provided £350 million to the response in Bangladesh since 2017 – this funding has paid for lifesaving food, water, sanitation, healthcare and shelter, and it also supports protection work for those vulnerable women and girls.

“And we continue to be a major global donor to the UN’s humanitarian agencies and the Central Emergency Response Fund providing £160 million this year supporting them to respond to this crisis.

“I’m going to be continuing to work with donors, both traditional and other, to try and both raise more international funding, and ensure that, as many colleagues have said, this is not a forgotten situation.”