Kerry urges Bristol to back the global poverty promise

People across Bristol are proud of what we’ve achieved and the help we’ve given to people living lives of poverty in developing countries: Kerry McCarthy MP

Kerry McCarthy MP is urging people to go online and back a new campaign to turn a promise to tackle global poverty into a law.

The www.globalpovertypromise.com website is part of a campaign to put the Government’s promise to raise international development aid to 0.7% of national income by 2013 into legislation.

Kerry said: “People across Bristol are proud of what we’ve achieved and the help we’ve given to people living lives of poverty in developing countries. We’ve campaigned to Make Poverty History and kept our promises through this global recession. I am urging people to go online and join me in backing ‘globalpovertypromise.com’.”

Douglas Alexander, Labour’s International Development Secretary, said: “Kerry has been a passionate campaigner on global poverty and a long standing advocate of action to help people in the developing world. She was my parliamentary aide for two years, and she brought me to Bristol to meet local faith groups, NGOs, fair trade campaigners, school pupils and diaspora communities. I know how committed she and many others in Bristol are to this cause.

“Aid increases and debt cancellation have helped to get 40 million more children into school, while the number of people with access to AIDS treatment has increased from just 100,000 to over 4 million. The proportion of the world’s population living in poverty has fallen from a third to a quarter thanks to a combination of both aid and trade.

“The Tories say they want a consensus on international development but when you scratch the surface, you find that they have changed their branding but not their beliefs. When they were last in Government, the Tories halved the British aid budget while Labour has trebled it. Now they refuse to back our plan to put our promise into law.”