David Lepper

Labour Party | Brighton Pavilion

'Back global poverty promise,' urges city MP

15 December 2009

David Lepper, Brighton Pavilion Labour and Co-operative MP, is urging people across Brighton and Hove to go online and back a campaign to turn a promise to tackle global poverty into 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.

David said:

"People across the city 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:

"David has been a passionate campaigner on global poverty and a long- standing advocate of action to help people in the developing world.

"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."