NORTH East Hampshire’s MP has praised a multi-million pound investment to help protect some of the world’s most endangered species.

Ranil Jayawardena MP has welcomed a £6 million boost from the Department for International Development to help protect species including rhinos, elephants and pangolins.

In a parliamentary question, Mr Jayawardena asked a minister in the department on Thursday what she has done to use aid funding to help protect endangered species.

Harriet Baldwin MP told Mr Jayawardena the government will be spending £6 million more to the illegal wildlife trade challenge fund as well as more money going toward international efforts against corrupt financial methods linked to the trade.

Mr Jayawardena, who founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Endangered Species, said: “Protecting and conserving our environment for the next generation means not just the environment in north Hampshire, but the climate, wildlife and planet we all share and want our children and grandchildren to have the opportunity to enjoy too—including those species currently endangered and facing extinction.

“I believe passionately that we must protect those who cannot protect themselves, including the twenty thousand elephants horrifically murdered for their ivory annually—one grotesque slaughter every twenty six minutes.

“Only last month, I had to raise with the prime minister a survey from Botswana that poignantly found ninety carcasses near a famous wildlife sanctuary.

“Right-thinking people are all the more shocked by this outrage as animals hold a special place in British society and in the hearts of British people. Needlessly causing suffering or death to gentle creatures is wholly abhorrent.

“When I was first elected to Parliament in 2015, I stood on a manifesto that promised to tackle the international wildlife trade and press for a total ban on ivory sales. I am delighted to say I helped the House of Commons pass a Bill to deliver on that promise.”

The announcement of extra funding also came while the UK was hosting the 2018 Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London, opened by the prime minister Theresa May and attended by Mr Jayawardena MP among others.