Tories Cannot be Trusted on Development
“The Tories are trying to exploit the fact that Make Poverty History are lobbying Parliament today
“They’ve got form on this issue and no one should believe a word they say on International Development.
“Alan Duncan himself proposed cutting international aid by over £2 billion in his book, Saturn’s Children.
“In 1992 the Tories said in their manifesto, “we continue to accept the long-term UN target for aid of 0.7% of GNP”. Then when they won the election they continued to cut aid – breaking their pledge to the poorest people in the world.
“In fact, when they halved the aid budget as a proportion of national wealth.
“Michael Howard has now set new standards of opportunism in his attempt to ally himself to the MakePovertyHistory campaign.
“Mr Howard did nothing to help the world’s poor in his time in office.
“Anyone who has studied his record knows that aid and development would be an early casualty of his £35bn cuts plan.
“We will be ensuring that come polling day, the public knows the truth about his record, and the impact of his policies for the future.
“Labour has led the world on aid, development and debt relief, and this belated bandwagoning by Howard impresses nobody.
“Labour will continue to help MakePovertyHistory. As we put the choice facing the British people, we are confident they will MakeHowardHistory.
